Women cotton workers demand justice, fair wages

Business Recorder

6 days ago

HYDERABAD: More than 90 participants including women cotton workers, trade union leaders, progressive growers, civil society representatives, and officials from the labor, social welfare, health, and environment departments gathered in Hyderabad Thursday to demand justice, fair wages, safe working conditions, and climate resilience for over one million women cotton workers across Sindh.
Organized by the Sindh Community Foundation (SCF) in collaboration with the Commonwealth Foundation, the day-long event featured a powerful Women's Assembly held at Indus Hotel under the theme 'Claiming Safe Working Conditions and Climate Justice.'
The forum served as a vital platform for women agricultural workers and labour advocates to raise concerns about exploitative wages, exclusion from labour protections, and the worsening impacts of climate change on women's health and livelihoods.
Opening the assembly, Javed Hussain, Executive Director of SCF, called for the accelerated implementation of social protection programs for women in agriculture, particularly in light of their disproportionate exposure to both labor injustice and climate shocks. 'Climate change is not just an environmental issue it's a growing threat to the health and dignity of rural women workers,' he said.'
The government must act urgently to recognize and protect them.' Hussain also highlighted the lack of enforcement of the Sindh Women Agricultural Workers Act (2019), which mandates ensure minimum wage healthcare, maternity benefits, and social security, but remains slowly unimplemented in rural districts.
Nadeem Shah, representing the Sindh Abadgar Board, noted that over 70% of agricultural labor in Sindh is performed by women, who are still not formally recognized under labor laws. He called for the legal classification of agriculture as an industry to ensure enforceable labor protections.
Dr. Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, an agricultural and climate expert, warned that only 65% of the expected cotton yield was produced this year due to water shortages, with women workers suffering the most when productivity falls.
From the grassroots, Ms. Zubaida Solangi, President of Sujagi Women Cotton Workers Trade Union from Meho Machi, Matiari, voiced workers' frustrations: 'We are still excluded from welfare boards and compensation funds.'
Dr. Muhammad Aslam Memon, of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, raised alarms over harmful agro-chemical use, urging a shift toward sustainable farming, tree plantation, and training for women in food preservation.
Other speakers including Shahnaz Sheedi, Pushpa Kumari, Gufrana (HRCP), and Pirah Syal (EPA Hyderabad), Sajid Soomr of Social Protection Department also shared, their views on gender-sensitive enforcement of labour and environmental laws and better coordination between departments to protect women in the fields.
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