HYDERABAD: On International Labour Day, Hari Welfare Association (HWA) lamented that across rural areas of Sindh, workers in agriculture, farms, and brick kilns, who are in millions, hardly receive Rs6000 per month against Rs17,500 minimum wage promised by the Government of Sindh for unskilled workers in 2019. HWA grieved that young people without employment, education and skill improvement opportunities are compelled to work around fourteen to sixteen hours at grocery shops, restaurants, and workshops just for Rs5000 per month in rural parts of Sindh. Of these workers, women and children are at the lowest ebb to receive the wages.
HWA stated that poverty, hunger and social and economic injustice push people to survive through the available limited economic opportunities. It is unfortunate that labour opportunities are less likely available throughout the month; because some of the work is seasonal. Thus, a worker often spends times at roadsides or the agriculture field in search of work. The minimum wage is one of the aspects of their miserable life without social security and protection. The pandemic like conditions such as Covid19 bring extremely worst consequences in their routine lives, and they are compelled to commit suicide. On 8th April 2020, three workers committed suicide in Khairpur district because they were unemployed due to covid19 locked down situation. They were frustrated and unable to see their families suffering through starvation in the given situation. They left their innocent children and women on the mercy of merciless feudal and tribal society. The government has not taken any measures to provide their families with a sustainable livelihood source. HWA said that it is mainly because the government lacks a will to place in the mechanism to ensure the implementation of the labour rights policies and laws.
HWA said that the Sindh Industrial Relations Act of 2013 has mistakenly recognized rural workers and peasants, and provides them to form unions. Still, the government has taken no steps to ensure the unionization of such workers. In 2019, the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act (SWAWA) was enacted, but the law has become dormant like any other law enacted since independence. HWA said like any other law, implementation of the SWAWA is significant to protect rural peasant and worker women from abuse, exploitation, marginalization and discrimination under the patriarchal, feudal and tribal society. HWA demanded the government do not need to increase the minimum wage, but for a few years, it should at least ensure that Rs17,500 wags is given to all workers. It should place in mechanisms by increasing the number of labour inspectors and labour courts so that rural workers too could form their unions to bargain and protect their rights as per labour rights laws.
