Consultative discussion on Rights and Well-being of Women Agricultural Workers in Pakistan
Photo credit: Waseem Gazdar
The National Commission on the Status of Women and
Collective for Social Science Research hosted a consultation
on the rights and wellbeing of women agricultural workers and their children in
Pakistan. It was held on 29th August 2018 at the Beach Luxury Hotel
in Karachi. The consultation acted as a platform to bring together activists,
lawyers, researchers, parliamentarians, women agricultural workers, members
from the National and Provincial Commissions on the Status of Women, and policy
makers who discussed the issues faced by women agricultural workers in Pakistan,
and debated potential ways of moving forward in recognizing and protecting
rights of women agricultural workers at local, provincial and national levels.
Dr. Yasmin Zaidi, Director of Center of Gender and Policy studies (CGaPs) presented
key findings of UN Women’s recent report on status of rural women in Pakistan. Citing
secondary data, Dr. Zaidi provided insights on women’s extensive contribution
in the agriculture sector. She said that 53 percent of women involved in
agriculture do unpaid work out of which 60 percent belong to the rural areas. Their
work is often considered informal, and hence they are not counted as workers.
This makes them virtually absent across public policy design and discourse. They
are denied basic rights such as public health services, and social security. She
suggested that policies and programmes must focus on improving women’s economic
empowerment, their participation in politics and their right to access justice
against violence.
Mr. Haris Gazdar, Director of
Collective for Social Science Research presented findings from a LANSA study
on “Women’s Work and Nutrition” stressing the link between women’s work, their
health and the health of their children. He discussed associations between
women’s work and other exogenous factors such as household food insecurity, mother’s
education and household wealth status that could be potential drivers of
women’s work in agriculture. His presentation revealed that the nutritional
status of women agricultural workers and health of their children was
negatively linked to their status of work. For example, women who undertook
strenuous work during pregnancy and after giving birth had poor nutritional outcomes.
Both presentations elicited
interesting questions from the participants around land rights, social
protection, and health policies highlighting the urgent need to compensate
women agricultural workers as most of their work is often unpaid or underpaid.
A consultative discussion with
the participants, moderated by Ms. Khawar Mumtaz (Chairperson, National
Commission on the Status of Women) took place in the second half of the day. The
discussion was around the need to place women agricultural workers at the
center of policies and programmes so that their health, wellbeing, and agency
within the household can be improved. Participants raised the need for effective
implementation of programmes and policies that could directly reach women
agricultural workers. They asserted that provision of basic healthcare services
such as setting up dispensaries near the villages was needed as many women have
limited mobility outside of their villages.
Improving women’s right to access
and own productive assets such as agricultural land was also a key concern for participants
who have been working with landless women. Provision of social security and
microfinance loans to agricultural workers without discriminating on the basis
of gender was also brought forward as an important policy priority that needs
attention from the state. Participants concluded that much needs to be done at
both policy design and implementation levels in order to improve the welfare of
women agricultural workers.
After hearing the discussion, I
came to the conclusion that provincial governments should establish systems of
support for women agricultural workers. Many individuals often challenge
previous governments on the basis of ineffective implementation at the grassroots,
but one should also look at programmes that have worked and yielded positive
results particularly for women.
Dr. Nafisa Shah, Member of
National Assembly said that the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has
been a model of success in providing marginalized women with official
recognition and direct access to state's resources.
It was the first step in allowing women to hold any department and personnel of
the state accountable or register a complaint without any male person’s
support. There are lessons to be learnt here.
