Women agri workers demand health insurance, better working conditions, wages

HYDERABAD: Rural women agriculture conference was held at Hala which was attended by more than 200 women cotton crop workers from 10 villages of Matiari district.

Poor working condition, lack of health safety measures, low wages and impact of climate change on the health of women agriculture workers were discussed in the conference.

The conference was organised by Sindh Community Foundation in cooperation with Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Regional Director Nagina Junejo of Directorate of Labour Hyderabad, Abdul Samad Deputy Director Labour, Assistant Director Labour Noor Muhammad Lakho, Javed Soz of Sindh Community Foundation (SCF), labour rights activists Taj Maree, Raja Muhsan, leaders of women cotton crop workers unions Shaista, Sadori and Lakrhi were amongst the speakers of conference.

The cotton crop workers were of the view that they work in scorching heat but they receive less wages which does not meet the minimum wages as compare to other workers. They said they experience worst health incidents during the picking process, mainly heat stroke and snake bites are quite common but they don’t receive any compensation from the landowner/growers.

They demanded that health insurance must be provided to them to utilise in hard times of health issues. They said during the Covid-19 pandemic they suffered hardships to acquire treatment in cases of the health issues and were charged heavy fare of transportation and no support from landowners was provided in such difficult times.

Javed Soz of SCF discussed that the agriculture workers need to be included in social security schemes. He said the Covid-19 also badly impacted these workers and very little number of women agriculture workers have been enlisted in Ahsas programme, however, this group need more social safety nets and economic support to cope with inflation, poverty and pandemic combined. He said that SIRA has hurdle, which state the landowner has to verify the labour for registration for trade union but most of the time landowners are afraid to ensure or confirm this so it is expected in many areas women workers could not be able to register themselves under the SIRA.

Taj Maree said that working conditions of the women cotton workers are poor, concrete actions are needed beyond the legislation to implementation.

Regional Director Labour department Nagina Junejo said that government is very much committed to work for the protection of the agriculture workers. She shared that government has committed to issue Banazeer Mazdoor Card under the recent legislation, the Sindh women agricultural workers Act 2019, and rules of business yet to be finalised. She said agriculture of Sindh depended on the role of rural women, we must recognise their role.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021