http://www.bhwa.net

Bangladesh Homeworkers Women Association (BHWA) is an NGO working with women homebased workers in the country since 1986 towards improving their socio-economic status. Our activities encompass all aspects of developmental work related to women homeworkers in our country. Along with our fight for worker rights issues, we also work towards increased awareness and financial independence for women homeworkers in collaboration with like-minded international agencies (HomeNet South Asia, UNIFEM etc.)Ms. Dilruba Anguri, General Secretary, BHWA, has been working in this sector for a



long time. A homeworker is the first to arise in the morning and the last to go to sleep at night. During the day, she has to finish all the duties involved in running a household as well as do other homebased work that will give her some additional income. A home worker's contribution to the social and economic development of the nation cannot be overlooked. Her hard work is not given due recognition and value. Homeworkers are a neglected group in Bangladesh. Many organizations including the ITGLWF and its member trade union organizations have been supporting us in our effort towards getting due recognition for the homeworker by requesting the government to include homebased women workers in it's new LABOUR CODE and adopt a NATIONAL POLICY (based on the ILO HOMEWORK CONVENTION 1996) on home based workers to ensure better justice and representation to their cause. Unfortunately, government support and recognition has not been forthcoming in spite of the immense potential of this sector in terms of export earnings. Homeworkers are a neglected group in Bangladesh. BHWA has repeatedly presented statistics to show that though individual homeworker contributions might be negligible, the vast numbers of homeworkers make the total contribution to the national economy quite substantial.Given the poor financial and economic status of the majority population in our country, women are increasingly looking towards some alternate source of income to supplement the wages that the male earning member brings in. However, they cannot afford to overlook their primary responsibility of managing the household and the children. So, working from home provides them with the best of both worlds, allowing them to utilize their skills to earn money and keep an eye on the household at the same time. They can also allocate time to all the duties at their convenience. Creating various handicrafts from a wide range of raw materials available locally, these hard working women also need to look for appropriate outlets for their products. Whatever they earn from their work is very often instrumental in giving their children a better education than they had or for family medical expenses. Thus their children will hopefully be physically and mentally better equipped to improve their living standards.In the current economic scenario, globalization has meant that many big business houses and factories have been shut down because they were unable to cope with the various difficulties arising from globalization. BHWA firmly believes that their motto, "MY HOME, MY WORKPLACE " is an idea that will help combat the future labour and economic problems faced by the country. If the government can equip and fund every home as a workplace, then unemployment caused by closure of factories can be dealt with effectively. And, as a result, the country's economic downslide can be prevented.
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Bangladesh Homeworker Women's Association (BHWA)House No. 11, Road No. 6, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka 1205, BangladeshPhone - +88-01720599001, Fax - +88-02-9664557Email - bhwa_bd@yahoo.com