Implementation of Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act, 2019, demanded

The Hari Welfare Association (HWA), a non-profit working to protect farmers' rights, has called for an immediate implementation of the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act, 2019

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2026) The Hari Welfare Association (HWA), a non-profit working to protect farmers' rights, has called for an immediate implementation of the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act, 2019.

Speaking at a seminar in Mirpurkhas district on Friday, the government officials and the civil society representatives pointed out issues which continued to harm women agricultural workforce.

Deputy Mayor Sumera Baloch said the provincial government and the local government bodies were implementing laws and rules aimed at protection and empowerment of women.

She emphasized on the role of communities for upholding women rights and for doing away with all sorts of gender based discriminations.

Akram Ali Khaskheli, President HWA, shared that an estimated 15 million women in rural Sindh lacked access to basic rights, including healthcare, education, and fair wages.

A significant proportion, he told, were engaged in agriculture, livestock, and fisheries, but they remained deprived of formal recognition, social protection, and equitable compensation.

According to him, a total of 771 cases of violence and abuse against women and girls were recorded through the media reports in Sindh in 2025, including 300 incidents of murder.

As per his shared statistics, women working in agriculture typically earned between Rs500 and Rs700 rupees per day for their more than 8 hours long toil.

Their labour, he added, included cotton picking, chilli harvesting, date processing, banana cultivation and wheat farming.

He lamented that despite passage of the 2019 Act, implementation remained absent across the province, limiting access to rights such as equal pay, forming unions, written contracts, and social security.

Earlier this year, he apprised, the Sindh Cabinet approved rules under the 2019 Act, but the same have not been notified and published.

Peasant women including Fozia Laghari, Shahida Parveen, Jameela, Abida Lashari and Azmina Baloch shared their life and work experiences as well as the violations of their rights which they claimed to be confronting every day.

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