A large number of community women from fishing and peasant families participated in a rally to celebrate World Food Day on Saturday, in Hyderabad city. The rally was a part of week-long activities, announced by Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) for celebration of the World Food Day. The similar activities have been designed in all the districts of the Sindh province, in which mostly communities from disaster-prone areas participated because they are paying the price of negligence by the government.
PFF Chairperson Muhammad Ali Shah, Sindh Agriculture Forestry Workers Coordinating Organisation (Safwco) President Suleman G Abro, peasant leader Punhal Sario, HRCP Sindh Taskforce Coordinator Dr Ashothama, Mustafa Gurgaiz, Javed Soz, and others led the rally. Fisherwomen activists and folk singers performed cultural songs and dance to show strengthen during the rally, passing through major streets of the city.
People hailing from different areas of Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Badin and Umerkot districts took part in the procession to express solidarity with the global communities, who are struggling to have sovereignty on their natural sources of food.
Muhammad Ali Shah said they are struggling to save the right of 'food producing communities, fishermen and peasants' who despite being producers do not have access to enough food. Shah warned that these people are vulnerable to face floods, cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, high tides, sea intrusion and malnutrition, but the government authorities and policy makers have different perception, pushing these people to live at the mercy of devastating floods.
He said recently announced land reforms by govt were politics-driven, which only benefited to some people, ignoring deserving landless communities in the Sindh province. PFF leader urged the govt to allow landless people to cultivate land in catchment's area of the River Indus. He said land reforms in true sense after consultation with the rural communities might be only way out to secure these communities.
He said they have collected data through communities that there are 300 natural lakes under the encroachment of ruling elites, who are depriving fishermen of their right to catch. He said only fishermen have a right to catch fish from the lakes. Similarly, he advocates the rights of peasant families, who are facing hunger and exploitation at the hands of cruel landlords.
Suleman Abro of Safwco said food shortage is manmade phenomenon, in which the poor peasants and fishermen are dying of malnutrition and facing hardships in many areas. He said at one side these people are facing devastated disasters and the other they are experiencing food crisis. Abro said these people are living in their areas through their forefathers and only they have right over natural resources, water bodies and lands and it's government's responsibility to safeguard the right of these people to these resources. Folk singers from Thar Desert, Dayal Sehrai and Masi Sadori from riverine areas of Jamshoro performed cultural songs during the colourful show, where community women also performed dance.
The World Food Day is being celebrated globally on October 16, 2015 with the theme 'Social Protection and Agriculture.' United Nation (UN) Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for 'Social Protection in Agriculture to Break the Cycle of Poverty.'