New Delhi: The SAARC nations when they meet here next month should give high priority to the concerns of home-based workers, majority of whom are women, to ensure that they benefit from regional and international trade, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here today(Jan 18, 2007).

"I would like the SAARC Summit in New Delhi to consider the Kathmandu Declaration and address the problems of home-based workers," Singh said in his inaugural address at a three-day South Asian Policy Conference on home-based workers.

The Kathmandu Declaration adopted by the UNIFEM Conference on the rights of South Asian home-based workers identifies areas of deprivation faced by them, including recognition, social protection, skill-building, technology development, credit availability and political participation.

Singh said the SAARC member governments must identify the products of the home-based workers and ensure that such workers directly benefit from regional and international trade.

"I do believe that women's empowerment should be a major objective of our social, political and economic policy in our region as a whole," Singh said.

Addressing a gathering that comprised experts and other representatives from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and the UK, the Prime Minister noted with concern that most home-based workers receive very low levels of income due to a chain of middle-men.

He said the main challenge was that of increasing the skills, productivity and earnings of these workers.