Faisalabad: April 19, 2015. (PCP) A training workshop entitled “Enhancing Awareness on Women Rights and Labour Laws” was held at Faisalabad on March 20-22, 2015. The event was hosted by the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM), implementing project of “Enhancing Women Workers’ Awareness on their Rights & Labor Laws” under the Gender Equity Program (GEP) of Aurat Foundation by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The objective of the training workshop was to enhance awareness and knowledge of women workers on labor rights and related laws and policies, and improve their leadership capacity to protect their rights. The event was joined by women workers from formal and informal sectors including; factory workers, lady health workers, home-based workers and domestic workers. Speaking on the occasion, the executive director of the AWAM, Nazia Sardar said, “It is unfortunate that the welfare of the workers has never been the main concern for the successive governments either civilian or military regime. The inflation is increasing with fast pace, but wages of women workers and availability of jobs are decreasing due to unfriendly labour policies and laws.” “Government must avoid anti-labour policies and must adopt and strictly implement pro-labour policies and laws for the prosperity of the nation,” she added. The project manager of the AWAM, Shazia George said, “The hostile environment at workplace is a gigantic hurdle in the way of women’s empowerment, no matter either they are engaged with formal or informal sector, they remain vulnerable. There is need to bring them in mainstream for their empowerment through investing in their education and skills, so that they could become real agent of change for their families, communities and society as a whole.” “The Punjab government took initiative of establishing Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) in 2014 for the development and empowerment of women. PCSW has introduced a toll free helpline 0800-93372 for women to get their problems and issues resolved, including; harassment, inheritance related challenges, family related matters, discrimination, violence, injustice and exploitation. This helpline will be helpful to empower the women workers and uplift their social and economic status,” she added. A women rights activist, Zarfishan Nasir said, “There is a lack of leadership among females, therefore women should put more focus on enhancing their leadership skills by analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, capacities and threats, and work hard to overcome their weakness and adopt innovative way to get their issues addressed.” At the conclusion of the workshop, the participants demanded that: The government must bound employers to adopt code of conduct for gender justice to safeguard the interests of women workers, and create safe working environment free of harassment, abuse and intimidation, where they could feel secure and work with dignity contributing to higher productivity and a better quality of life at workplace. The government must protect rights of home based workers, domestic workers and ensure maternity benefits through ratification and implementation of ILO conventions C-177, C189 & C183 respectively, and bring them under regulation by recognizing them as part of labor force in labor codes and extending social and legal protection coverage to workers engaged in informal sector. The government must take effective measures to monitor the brick-kiln and factories especially and enforce existing labour laws in letter and spirit to stop exploitation of workers’ rights.