HYDERABAD: Millions of women living in rural Sindh are without basic rights including health, education and wages. Most of them are directly engaged in agriculture, livestock and fisheries but have not received their rightful entitlements, said Akram Ali Khaskheli president Hari Welfare Association, in the statement issued on Sunday.
Khaskheli said that HWA had compiled a report on violence, abuse and exploitation of women and girls in Sindh from January to June 2024, which reveals 837 cases include 174 suicides (suspected murder), 140 abductions, 125 rapes, 118 murders, 68 domestic violence incidents, 63 honor killings, 13 forced marriages, 6 child marriages, and 3 acid attacks; and also 127 cases of harassment in the agricultural sector.
He added that the highest numbers of cases were reported in Sukkur and Larkana divisions largely because of a lack of enforcement of women’s protection laws. He lamented that the police do not take women’s issues seriously, and reporting cases is difficult in rural areas.
Husna Chand, President of Latif Hariyani Mazdoor Trade Union, Matiari, grieved that due to the non-implementation of the Sindh Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 2015, the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1955, thousands of peasants and workers living in harsh conditions often without basic human rights. Husna added that HWA has recorded the release of 11,130 peasants and workers from forced labour by court orders, including 3,700 women, 3,820 children, and 3,610 men, from 2013 to 2022. In this regard, Husna added that the district vigilance committees, established under the Sindh Bonded Labour System Abolition Act to prevent forced labour, have taken no action in any district.
Marvi Gambhir, General Secretary of Latif Hariyani Mazdoor Trade Union, Matiari, said that the economic conditions of women peasants and workers in agriculture, farming and livestock sectors are worsening day by day due to no or low wages. The minimum wage law set by the government is not enforced in the agricultural sector, and currently, women earn between 500 and 700 rupees per day, while toil hard more than eight hours. She added that she had been listening about the Sindh Agriculture Women Workers Act of 2019 but has not seen its implementation not only in the Matiari district but in other neighboring districts where she often met with women in the agriculture sector. She added that laws are only on papers would not change women’s lives in the agriculture sector.
Jamul Malokhani, a leader of Women Mazdor Union, Matiari, said that the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1950 was meant to protect the rights of peasants because the government and bureaucracy belong to feudal lords who govern the province. Landlords do not let sharecropping peasants register tenancy under the STA of 1955. She said that she is worried to know that more than 75 years have lapsed but the law has not been implemented to protect peasants who are easily evicted by landlords and also deprived of their share in the cultivated crops and savings.
Khaskheli added that HWA and other pro-peasant rights organizations have also been urging the government of Sindh to further amend the Sindh Tenancy Act to meet the current needs of peasants and protect their rights. He demanded that STA be amended by consulting with peasants’ rights trade unions, lawyers, and other civil society stakeholders. He added that each year hundreds of peasants are evicted from their lands and the existing system does not address their concerns. Thus, he demanded that special peasants’ courts should be established in each district to hear and address peasants’ grievances.
The press organizers also lamented that the government of Sindh had opposed peasants’ rights also by challenging the historic decision of the Sindh High Court on peasants in 2019 in the Supreme Court through civil petition 652. This proves that the landlords in the assemblies do not want the millions of sharecropping peasants in Sindh to receive their rightful share.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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