Hunar-e-Zan Products – Roots For Equity

The very first initiative that the organization had taken with respect to women empowerment had been its work with home-based women workers in a squatter settlement in Karachi, Sindh. The tentacles of Globalization have certainly reached working class women, especially the most exploited and oppressed sector of home-based women workers. After two years of organizing, in 2000 we were able to form a Home-Based Women Workers Collective in Qasbah Colony and then spread the work in villages in two districts of Sindh, namely Tando Mohammad Khan and Badin. Our goal has been to ensure that women understand the roots of exploitation and oppression embedded in their lives through the joint pressure of feudalism, globalization and patriarchy. Roots were able to launch products by women at a stall at the Sunday Bazar in Defense Housing Society – such local daily bazars were the norm in the 1990s; the stall was initiated on May 7, 2000.

Our collective was also able to benefit from such endeavours. In addition, Roots for Equity also started a small outlet called “Hunar-e-Zan” but was not able to maintain it because of the very high overhead costs. However, the entire initiative for the Women Workers Collective has come to be known as Hunar-Zan, with more than a hundred handmade products being produced.

Please support home-based women workers, both urban and rural. Please place your orders here for any of the products that you would like to acquire. We thank you, wholeheartedly! You are also welcome to call us at our office number 021-34813320 for more details or to place an order.