Law on paper, rights in limbo

The unexplained delay in the enforcement of Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act, 2019, has been keeping the rural female workforce deprived of their rights. A seminar, organised by the Hari Welfare Association (HWA) in Mirpurkhs district on Friday, discussed at length the woes of female farm workers who are yet to receive even an iota of benefit under the act.

The HWA's president Akram Ali Khaskheli claimed that around 15 million women in the province's rural parts have been working mainly for the livestock, fisheries and agriculture sectors without protection of their rights. He contended that they neither get their basic rights or fair wages nor are they offered quality healthcare and education.

"They are denied formal recognition, social protection, and equitable compensation." According to him, women employed in agriculture typically earn between Rs500 and Rs700 rupees per day for their over eight-hour long work which often exposed them to health hazards.

A majority of them are employed for cotton picking, chili harvesting, date processing, banana cultivation and wheat farming. Under the act, the female rural workforce is supposed to be given jobs through written employment contracts. They are entitled to 120 days long paid maternity leave as well as paid sick leaves.

Their salary or wage is also supposed to be at par with their male counterparts. They have the right to form an association of workers or a union thereof. The Sindh Labour and Human Resource Department is under an obligation to conduct registration of women agricultural workers.

The law provides them protection from harassment and abuse as well as from gender based workplace discrimination. However, Khaskheli lamented, such rights remain confined to the written law as practical implementation is yet to see the light of the day. Mirpurkhas' Deputy Mayor Sumera Baloch claimed that the provincial and the local governments are implementing laws and rules aimed at protection and empowerment of women.