Women agri workers bill: minding the gaps

Awoman in the agriculture field, about to give birth, receives neither any maternity leave nor any social protection from her local zamindar (landowner). If she leaves the field in the middle of the day she is dismissed from work and left unpaid. In most cases, women working in the agriculture fields are paid starvation wages despite the fact that their work involves long hours and intense labour.

Take the story of Marvi, an agricultural worker, who lives in the Matiari district of Sindh. She works 12 hours a day and earns just Rs100, which is far less than the minimum wage set by the Government of Sindh. During work, if she gets sick she cannot take time off, forget about maternity leave.

Such a story is all too familiar in the rural areas of Pakistan where women are more severely affected by poverty, malnutrition and under representation in the decision making process as compared to men. Even though women in Pakistan’s rural areas constitute the majority of the agriculture labour force in minimal and subsistence farming, their labour is not recognised as “work” by the formal and informal institutions, thus resulting in the marginalisation of women in their political, social and economic lives. More so, feudal landowners deliberately promote agricultural labour exploitation and patriarchal oppression of female agriculture workers.

Keeping in view the extreme marginalisation and poverty of women in rural Sindh, the European Union funded and initiated the Sindh Union Council and Community Economic Strengthening Support (SUCCESS) programme in 2016. This aims to reduce poverty of 700,000 rural households by empowering women through various interventions including organising women-led community institutions, equipping them with vocational, leadership, and management skills, providing access to capital and formal financial institutions and forums to present their voice and communities in the decision making process and development undertaken for them.

A study on women empowerment through the SUCCESS programme interventions showed that it improved political interactions by creating awareness of rural women’s demands and needs, then boosting their confidence as active citizens who should adopt a participatory development approach when interacting with public departments, and lastly, assisted them to knock at the right doors.

These political interactions channeled through Joint Development Committees formed at the tehsil and district level represented by women from the community institutions, representatives of local government, politicians, social workers and government officials, provided them the opportunity to advocate for their social and economic rights.

As a result, the Government of Sindh passed and ratified the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Bill in 2019, under which women workers in agriculture, livestock, fisheries or other agro-based industries were given rights and benefits. The bill ensured their participation in decision making and eliminated discrimination. With this legislation, Sindh became the first province to take such a decision in South Asia.

The approved bill promotes and protects women’s rights, ensures their participation in decision making, eight hours’ work, written contracts and wages to not be less than the minimum wage fixed by the government, 120 days of maternity and Iddat leave, a harassment-free work environment, equal wage. It also gives them the right to form unions or to associate themselves with an association, access government agricultural, livestock, fisheries and other services, credit, social security, subsidies and asset transfers in their own rights or in association with other women agriculture workers, and the registration of workers at the union council level.

The polity of Sindh has shown a great vision by taking the first step towards the protection of women agriculture workers through the ratification of the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Bill. Implementing this will require certain concerted measures such as strengthening synergies among community institutions, workers organisations, local government authorities and other departments of the government, to build upon and ensure women agriculture workers’ rights and benefits. This will in turn play a significant role in the empowerment of rural women and minding the gender gaps.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2020.

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