World Urban Forum

Lack of certification maybe as a result either early marringes or unwanted pregnancy has made women not able to get decent jobs and end up doing support work which sometimes are not well paying and at the same time heighten by already existing family responsibilities. This had made it hard for women to progress hence such initiatives like SEWA should be encouraged as an avenue to bring together women to share their expiriences and help them realised that despite the past expiriences there is always light at the end of the tunnels. And apart from empowering women economically can be used to offer capacity building to women who want to still persue their dreams in education to reduce the back log of illitracy in women as there is no kind of encouragement can be expected from illitrate woman to their children hence unless this women are inspired to bring change the circle will still be repeated

Let's start with the basics: include facts and figures about women in development planning and ensure that gender and development are considered in the realm of local and national planning, investment programming and budgeting. Look our for good practices on allocating certain percentages from national and local governments' budgets for gender and development, national laws that support rights of women and some monitoring systems that will point to faces and places of poverty- are they women? Children? Where are they? Why are they poor? In developing countries, national government agencies are established to dedicate programs for gender and development.

Practically, improving lives of vulnerable( less privileged, less/non educated..) girls, women living in our cities is likely best options of access to vocational training. Encourage them to learn quick skills of tailoring, hairdressing, catering, sports, descent modelling, Arts/Music performers etc

In a study conducted by Jagori and Women in Cities International in two low income settlements in Delhi, it was found that women face an unequal burden of poor water and sanitation services. Since in most societies patriarchy is still strong, women tend to carry the burden of looking after and caring for children and the family. Thus poor delivery of basic services often leads to increase in the time that women have to spend on collecting water, bathing children, washing clothes and often just standing in lines to get water. It is therefore essential to put these on the agenda of governments and municipalities as the needs of poor women are not usually heard or seen as important.

I want to highlight the case of home based workers, a large number of whom are women, as one of the most vulnerable of the urban informal workers groups, who remain largely invisible in the urban policy and planning debates. Home-based workers work from home and encompass a wide diversity of activities, ranging from traditional embroidery and weaving to telework and assembling micro-electronics etc. Home-based work is particularly significant among women workers in Asia.

The situation of home based workers differs from that of many other poor urban informal workers in that their home is their workplace, and they often live and work throughout the day and night in slum environments, as opposed to those who work outside and come home primarily at night. For this reason, slum-related health and environmental problems pose particular concerns in the case of home-based workers in the future. A lack of urban services – including adequate and affordable supply of electricity, water, sanitation, transportation, and other basic services – thus threatens not only their living environment but also their livelihoods. The high costs of housing in urban centers, crowded households and small spaces, with poor ventilation and poor environmental conditions contribute to the home based workers vulnerability. Home based workers also face other urban service related hazards - problems of sewage, open drains and poor waste management and garbage collection.

When cities turn a blind eye to the need of slum dwellers for basic infrastructure services or periodically clear slums, or enforce single-use zoning regulations, these practices are like a double-edged sword to home-based workers as they undermine or destroy not only their homes but also their workplace. Most cities do not know very much about home-based workers; fewer still do much about them. Very little efforts to promote a more favourable policy environment for the home based workers through improved analysis, broad awareness building and participatory policy dialogues have been made.

To know more about how a slum upgradation program in Gujarat, India has impacted the lives and livelihood of the urban poor women workers, see http://www.inclusivecities.org/research/BN1%20Rusling.PDF

Shalini Sinha,
Sector Specialist,
Home based Workers
WIEGO
www.wiego.org

Shalini indeed Nigeria, in short throughout West African cities where i often traverse like India their are large population of workers in home, more so self employed women. They live in poor housing conditions etc mostly in slums. I am studying the Gujarat program and am convinced i would recommend it to most of our city councils.

Indeed women are most disadvantage especially in relation to unwanted pregnancies and decision making hence majority are left to fend for themselves at a very tender age thus denying them opportunity to prosper to their full pontential. And i concur if this young girls are given opportunity to attend vocational training and get certification majority can help in creating jobs for themselves and others hence the notion of dependecy that has led women just be confined in households as house wives unless circumstances forced them can be addressed and overpopulation in slums can also be able to be minimised as they can be able to afford themselves better housing too. And these can generally be done through capacity building and economic empowerment details on how it can be done can be found at http://www.kiviwosheg.wordpress.com