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| February 21, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 22, 1427 |
WTO fails to lessen woes of cotton pickers
ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: Pakistan’s entry into the quota-free WTO Agreement on Textile and Cotton (T&C) a year ago has failed to lessen the hazards woman cotton pickers of Sindh and Punjab face in their work.
Researchers expressed this view at a seminar held here on Monday on the pesticide poisoning the cotton pickers are exposed to in their work.
There were indications that WTO’s free trade regime would continue to serve the interests of the developed world and that the growth in the world economy is unlikely to trickle down to the third world masses, the seminar organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) was told.
At home, it looks the landlords would remain free to dictate the lives of the farm workers, according to the speakers.
Lahore-based researcher Naila Hussain said the multinational pesticide companies followed double standards in marketing their poisonous products. They strictly observed environmental rules in the developed world but hardly any in markets like Pakistan.
“These multinationals spend billions of rupees on advertisement to sell their pesticides but none cares to inform the mostly uneducated farm workers about the hazards of these pesticides and how to apply them safely,” she said.
Sixty-five per cent of the pesticides imported in Pakistan were sprayed on cotton but the farmhand using it did not even wore gloves or mask because he or she was not told about the lethal effects of such poisons. Women pick the cotton a week or two after the spray with bare hands not knowing that the residual effects of such poisons often last for months, in some cases even for years.
“You will see women breast-feeding their children in cotton fields, which means that our coming generations are also poisoned,” Ms Hussain said.
Sometimes the pesticides become part of the food chain when left-over cotton pesticides are sprayed on fruit and vegetable crops, she added.
She also voiced concern over the Pakistani cotton sector’s “too much dependency” on the technology and pesticides of the developed world and the extinction of the indigenous culture of seasonal agricultural fares where the farmers used to discuss their collective problems and experiences. Besides, cancer and skin diseases, complaints were common in the cotton zones about headaches, breathing problems, gastro-enteritis and asthma, she observed.
Unfortunately, the hospitals in these areas were not even equipped to test pesticide poisons in the blood.
Ms Hussain said the landlords give picking contracts and the contractor employs women as daily wagers without any concern for their welfare. “These women are not provided even drinking water due to which kidney-related problems are common in these areas”, she said.
Karin Astrid Siegmann, a researcher of SDPI, said the WTO T&C Agreement had made no difference to the pathetic living conditions of the woman cotton pickers.
In fact, the inflation rate of 22 per cent during 2004-05 had worsened their condition as there had been no increase in wages. Since they had no alternative livelihood, these women seldom complained about their exploitation by the contractors — in many cases including sexual abuse — said Ms Siegmann.
Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producing country in the world with 3 million hectares under cotton cultivation and 1.7 million ton production. But those doing the back-breaking work in the cotton fields live below the poverty line as while the landlords, the ginners and the spinners can influence the government’s policy-making and the farmhands cannot.
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