Stitching a kantha is artistic work that demands ceaseless attention, boring immobility and repetitious movement of the hands and the eyes. The labor and talent required by the nakshi-kantha makers are by no means inferior to those of any other job. But the wage they get is far less than they deserve. They are subjects to exploitation by a section of middlemen and NGOs who give them a meager amount and take away the lion's share of the sales proceeds.

This happens due to the absence of a national policy for the home-based workers. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, there is an active labor force of some 40 million women in the country. Among them, approximately 15 million are engaged in various home-based or household work. Home-based work is something that a person carries out at his/her home, and not in a formal workplace, for which s/he gets remuneration. Realizing the widespread existence of home-based work, and the importance it carries for women and the economy of developing countries as a whole, the International Labor Organization (ILO) introduced a convention for this kind of work and workers.

The ILO Home-work Convention No. 177, adopted in June 1996 in Geneva, stipulates equal treatment and better working conditions for people engaged in home-based work. As per the convention, the term home-based work is defined as: "work carried out by a person, to be referred to as a home-worker, in his or her home or in other premises of his or her choice, other than the workplace of the employer, for remuneration, which results in a product or service as specified by the employer, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials or other inputs used."

The rural women in Bangladesh are usually involved in home-based work like producing various handicrafts items such as embroidered quilt or nakshi-kantha, wall mats, floor mats, carpets, hand fans, clay jewelry, decoration pieces, bamboo and cane products, sewing, embroidery and tailoring, poultry farming and homestead gardening.

Poor rural women generally do not have enough capital to invest for producing handicraft items. Moreover, marketing of the produced items is another big problem for them. The middlemen or intermediaries take advantage of this and assign the rural women to produce various items on contractual or piece-rate basis. The remuneration they offer is too low compared to their employed labor. Thus, the women are deprived of their due shares.

According to Bangladesh Home Workers Women Association (BHWA) estimation, the annual contribution of the home-based workers to the GDP is about Tk 150 billion. But unfortunately, this contribution is not reflected in the government statistics. The BBS data shows that the contribution of the industrial sector in GDP in FY 2002-03 was Tk 462.37 billion (constant price of 1995-96). Of the amount, the contribution of large-scale industry was Tk 325.58 billion, while small scale contributed Tk 136.80 billion. The statistics show that the contribution of home-based workers is larger than that of the small-scale industry.

But the demand for recognition of the home-based working women as industrial laborers was not met by the policy-makers and authorities concerned, despite their huge contribution to the economy. Bangladesh is yet to ratify the ILO convention 177 adopted for the economic and social emancipation of the home-worker women. Sub-section 2 of section 206 of the Labor Law of Bangladesh also contains a provision for recognizing the home-based women workers as laborers, and their working places as factories. But the law is not being followed.

Due to the absence of any legal framework the women home-workers do not get the wages they deserve, or the proper price for the items they produce. They also become victims of disparity while marketing their items. Although these women are producing quality goods and exportable items, their contributions are not recognized to be at par with their counterparts in the garments and other sectors.

Bangladesh Home Workers Women Association (BHWA) and Homenet Bangladesh have been working for the betterment of the home-based workers in Bangladesh. Homenet South Asia, an alliance of Homenet of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, have also been working for realizing the legitimate rights of the home-based workers in the region. BHWA and Homenet Bangladesh recently arranged a roundtable to formulate a national policy for the home-based workers.

There is great prospect for the flourishing of the handicraft industry in the country, as demand from abroad for nontraditional items is increasing day by day, compared to stagnation of export of many traditional items. But, at first, it would require adoption of a national policy providing adequate protection to the workers' interests so that they are not subject to exploitation by the intermediaries.

At the very outset of the article we saw how the main architect of a nakshi-kantha is being deprived of her due share of the profit. To protect the interests of the workers, the policy should incorporate the following submissions: recognition of the home-based workers as laborers; inclusion of the home-based workers in the national statistics; formation of wage board for the home-based workers, announcement of minimum wage and wage structure for the home-based workers; health security for them at the workplace; ensuring working atmosphere; maternity facilities for the home-based workers; housing and travel facilities; insurance and social security; education facility for their wards; setting minimum age-limit for the home-based workers and introduction of old-age allowance.

Throughout the developing and least developed parts of the world, home-based workers are neglected and are not given the recognition and respect that workers of the formal sector are given. Yet they play an important role in fighting unemployment in a society. They make a significant contribution to the national earning of a country. However, these facts often remain undocumented due to the informal nature of the work, and also due to general neglect of home-based work and workers. The ILO Convention No 177 stipulated that home-based workers must be recognized as genuine workers and accorded similar rights like minimum wage, eligibility to form trade unions, occupational safety, compensation for work related illness, old age pension and so on.

Nazrul Islam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.