There are at present an estimated 8.5 million domestic workers employed across Pakistan, with no coherent legislative framework to regulate their employment and left largely to the mercy of their employers. The ad hoc and concealed nature of the domestic workers’ sector means that a whole host of issues associated with lack of government control can be found within this sector. These include problems such as child labour, sex labour and bonded labour. Domestic workers are also routinely subjected to violence and abuse, and denied basic rights such as clean and safe working conditions and maternity leave.

All these problems can be directly linked to a failure to document and regulate the employment of these workers. The Domestic Workers Bill 2013, currently tabled in the Senate, aims to create such a regulatory framework by incorporating the ILO's Domestic Workers’ Rights Convention into domestic law. The Bill, introduced in 2013, is still languishing in the Senate because there is no powerful interest group or sustained lobbying effort behind it. This petition is a way of showing that the majority of the Pakistani people support the Bill and demand its passage into law. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) labels domestic workers as among “those who are most vulnerable, who face the greatest insecurity and for whom the denial of social justice is most cruel”; supporting this Bill is a way of standing up for the weakest members of our society. 

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