A conference o­n �National Policy for Home-based Workers� was held at Ashoka Hotel in the Indian capital of New Delhi o­n January 18-20. A total of 47 participants from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal attended the conference. From Bangladesh, home-based worker leader Dilruba Anguri, Joint Secretary ABM Abdus Sattar and other home-based workers in the country participated in the workshop. Decisions taken in the workshop are including the rights and concerns of home-based workers mentioned in the Strategic Action Plan as priority issues in the upcoming SAARC Summit in April 2007, for mulating national policies for home-based workers, increasing trade opportunities for home-based workers by exclusive retail platforms and trade promotion initiatives, ratifying ILO Convention 177, supporting Development of the SAARC Gender Database to include data o­n Home-Based Workers and recognizing HomeNet South Asia as a representational body of home-based workers.

WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), in conjunction with organisations of waste collectors, supportive researchers and NGOs, has initiated a project that aims to facilitate international networking and solidarity amongst organizations of informal waste collectors, with a view to increasing their visibility and voice internationally. This includes convening an international conference in Latin America in September 2007. At present the Steering Comittee is identifying and recording information o­n democratic, member-based organisations of informal waste collectors in different regions of the world. This includes worker cooperatives, associations and trade unions organized locally, nationally or regionally. The Steering Committee is also interested in identifying and collecting information o­n NGOs that support and work with groups of informal waste collectors.

Please contact:

The Steering Committee

Christine (Chris) Bonner: WIEGO: Organization & Representation Programme, [email protected]

Current Steering Committee Members

Laxmi Narayan:General Secretary, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), India, [email protected]

Martin Medina: Programme Manager, Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, Japan

Sonia Maria Dias, Minas Gerais Waste and Citizenship Forum, Brazil

Laila Iskander, CID, Egypt

Luiz Henrique and Severino, National Movement of Wastepickers, Brazil

for more details.

The Asian Domestic Workers Network (ADWN) was officially formed in the year 2005 as an outcome of an Exchange workshop of Asia Domestic Workers in Hong Kong in 2004. This exchange was organised by Committee for Asian Women (CAW). It is the first Asian-based network that links up local adult Domestic Workers� organisations.

Currently Committee of Asian Women is acting as the secretariat of the ADWN.

The network comprises of local adult DW organisations/unions and NGOs from Asia.

At present, we have membership from South Asia, East Asia and South East Asia who are mostly DW organisations including societies, trade unions and NGOs.

Our membership comprises of two categories , the regular and associate members.

Tentative Dates: 8-10 November 2006

Head Office, FNV Mondiaal, Amsterdam

"Domestic workers' employment situation is considered not to 'fit' the general framework of existing employment laws. This is because most work done by them is generally invisible, done in houses (not considered as workplaces) of private persons (not considered as employers). So, domestic workers are not normally considered as employees, their work is undervalued, and their working conditions remain, in essence, unregulated. In fact, some countries not o­nly do not consider household helpers as workers and exclude them from protection under their national labour codes, they do not provide them with protection under any other national law. In some countries they are denied the right to organize in trade unions. This of course leaves them vulnerable to abuse."