HYDERABAD: On International Labour Day, Hari Welfare Association (HWA) said rural workers and peasants constitute more than 70 percent of the Labour force in Sindh’s rural areas, who toil hard in agriculture, farms, and brick kilns but they have never been a priority of the Sindh government.

These millions of workers are without decent work and social security including the minimum wage. HWA stated that a rural worker hardly receives Rs6000 per month against the Rs25, 000 minimum wage promised by the Government of Sindh for unskilled workers in 2019.

The Sindh Industrial Relations Act of 2013 acknowledges rural workers and peasants and allows them to join unions, according to the HWA. The government, on the other hand, is doing everything it can to ensure the unionisation of such rural employees, particularly in the agriculture and brick kiln sectors. The Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act (SWAWA) was passed in 2019, however, as with any other law passed since independence, it is now inert. According to HWA, the SWAWA, like any other law, could help to protect rural peasant and female 0worker from abuse, exploitation, and marginalisation in feudal and tribal societies. According to HWA, millions of young people in rural Sindh are compelled to labour roughly fourteen hours a day in grocery stores, restaurants, and workshops for barely Rs5000 per month due to unemployment and a lack of education, skills, and employment possibilities. Women and girls are among them, picking cotton and chillies for pitiful earnings.

HWA demanded that the Sindh government ensures that Rs 25,000 wage is given to all workers in rural areas. In this regard, exemplary punishments should be given to those who violate the minimum wage policy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022