There is not a lot of work to be had these days in the Lancashire mill towns. But that's scarce justification for paying homeworkers as little as 10p an hour.

 

In Nelson, in North-east Lancashire, there are more than 6,000 Asians, many of whom were recruited in the 50s textile boom. Now the industry is paying Third World rates to Third World women.

 

In the back rooms of the old terraced weavers' cottages In the back rooms of the old terraced weavers' cottages that fan outwards up the hilly Pennine streets from the mills, Asian women make up ribbons, bows, pompoms and rosettes for a local firm. The pay for sewing a small satin bow that will probably end up round a box of after dinner mints is £ 5.50 per 1,000. With deft fingers and no interruptions it might take five minutes to make one bow. Most women average ten minutes per bow. If all the family helps out, you might make up two to three thousand in a week.

 

The firm doesn't recruit only Asian women but there are few English women prepared to tolerate the work for so little for so long.

 

 

For many Moslem men, a working wife is a family disgrace and even homeworking will only be tolerated as long as it does not interfere with the three Cs - cooking, cleaning and children. Purdah is powerful still. Of course, it's a problem for all women who need to work and have inescapable home responsibilities or who are sick and disabled.

 

But as Frank White, MP for Bury and Radcliffe, and ardent campaigner for homeworkers rights says: "In an exploited group, the greatest degree of exploitation comes with Asian women".

 

Asian women are at the bottom of the workers pile -  the untouchables of the labour market.

 

They don't do the work just for the money. Confined by language, fear and tradition to a back-room world, it's all too easy to start feeling lonely and homesick — even when they are part of a thriving Asian community. Doing something with their hands helps to combat boredom and brooding.

 

All the more reason to tackle the problem of home-working head-on, Manchester community worker Nilofar Siddiqui argues: "Not just because the work is so exploitative but because it serves to reinforce the very problems Pakistani women have in adjusting to their new life in this country". She is one of the pioneers of a new development in homeworking. The Long sight and Moss Side Community Project is about to set up the first homeworkers' co-operative in the country.

 

There are scores of Asian clothes manufacturers in Manchester - often themselves employing Asian women as outworkers. The rates can vary between 9p and 35p a garment but few earn more than £20 or £25 a week and that ignores the costs of homeworking such as machine hire and electricity.