Sarbani Kattel, Programme Coordinator at HNI, was a panelist at the UNRBHR Forum session, “Women Workers Organizing to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Garment Global Supply Chains.” The session was organized by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) and the Commercial and Industrial Workers’ Union – Sri Lanka.

Sarbani shared insights on the realities faced by home-based workers (HBWs), the gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) they experience, and the importance of ILO Convention No. 190 (C190) in ensuring that protection from violence and harassment extends to wherever work takes place.

Home-based workers carry out paid work in or around their homes. They may work on their own account, producing and selling their own products, or as homeworkers who receive orders from contractors, traders or companies, often through layers of intermediaries. Many homeworkers are paid by the piece, bear part of the costs of production themselves, and lack the recognition and protections associated with a formal employment relationship.

Why C190 matters for home-based workers

During the discussions leading up to the adoption of C190 in 2019, HBW organizations worked with trade unions across Asia to ensure that two critical realities were reflected: the home can be a place of work, and domestic violence can have a direct connection to the world of work.

For HBWs, C190 challenges the traditional understanding of a workplace. Violence and harassment do not only occur in factories or offices; they can also take place in homes, during travel, at contractors’ workplaces, and in other locations connected to work.

C190 therefore offers an important opportunity to strengthen the recognition and protection of HBWs through inclusive national policies that address violence and harassment affecting workers in informal and precarious forms of employment.

The invisible dimensions of GBVH

Four factors contribute significantly to HBWs’ vulnerability to GBVH: informality and lack of recognition as workers, economic dependency, gender and social norms, and limited access to grievance and remedy mechanisms.

HNI’s Gender Committee explored these realities in its April 2025 research report, Invisible Dimensions of Home-Based Work: A Study on Gender and Home-Based Work. The study surveyed 405 HBWs across five regions and provides a snapshot of violence and harassment experienced by women home-based workers.

Among the 189 respondents who answered questions about forms of violence experienced, the most commonly reported were economic abuse (62%), psychological abuse (51.9%), verbal aggression (49.7%), sexual abuse (32.3%) and physical abuse (28.6%).

The findings also point to the hidden nature of violence. Some workers may not recognize manipulation, exploitation or abuse as violence, while fear, shame and normalization can discourage workers from seeking help. Nearly half of respondents said they had not experienced violence, yet some of those same respondents reported having sought help following an attack.

Awareness of C190 also remains limited: 73% of respondents said they were not familiar with the Convention.

These findings underline the importance of not only having policies and laws in place, but also building workers’ awareness, collective voice and access to safe reporting and remedy mechanisms.

Lessons from Nepal: organising for ratification

Nepal provides an important example of how HBWs and their allies have organized around C190. Following the Convention’s adoption in 2019, HBW organizations established a study circle bringing together home-based workers, trade unions and other stakeholders to understand C190 and explore its relevance to Nepal.

This work gradually moved from awareness-raising to collective advocacy. A coalition of around 36–37 organizations—including trade unions, HBW organizations, women’s organizations, legal and rights groups and other civil society actors—came together to advocate for ratification.

With ILO support, an action group was established and a legal gap analysis undertaken to identify changes needed to align Nepal’s laws and policies with C190. While the analysis has gone through review and validation, further progress towards ratification remains needed.

For HBW organizations, one of the key lessons is that broad alliances and sustained organizing are essential. Bringing together workers’ organizations, women’s rights groups, disability organizations, legal aid organizations and other civil society actors can help turn an issue affecting often-invisible workers into a broader national policy priority.

Everyone has a role

Preventing and addressing GBVH requires action across the supply chain and wider ecosystem.

Governments can ratify and implement C190, recognize HBWs, ensure labour and justice systems reach informal workers, and provide accessible complaint, legal aid and survivor-support mechanisms.

Brands can look beyond Tier 1 suppliers, identify GBVH risks among subcontracted and home-based workers, include them in human rights due diligence, and establish accessible grievance and remedy mechanisms.

Suppliers and factories can strengthen protections throughout their subcontracting networks, identify intermediaries, ensure workers know their rights, and provide safe channels for reporting and remedy without retaliation.

Trade unions, women’s organizations, civil society and HBW organizations also have a critical role in building awareness, strengthening collective voice and ensuring that workers are able to participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their working lives.

Making decent work a reality

For home-based workers, decent work cannot exist without freedom from violence and harassment. ILO Convention 190 provides an important opportunity to ensure that protection reaches workers wherever work takes place.

But turning that opportunity into reality requires continued organizing, awareness-raising, strong alliances and action to ensure that home-based workers are recognized, heard and protected.