THE Hari Welfare Association recently released the State of Peasants’ Rights in Sindh in 2019. This is an annual report on the struggle for the rights of landless peasant and agricultural workers in Sindh. The report hailed two significant developments that took place last year. First, in October 2019, a division bench of the Sindh High Court struck downSection 6 of the Sindh Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 2013, which had worsened the peasants’ exploitation at the hands of the landed class by omitting the prohibition of unpaid labour. Later reports, however, pointed out that the Sindh government appealed to the Supreme Court against the high court’s judgement, showing resistance to improving the status of peasants in the province. Then, in December 2019, the Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Women Agriculture Act, 2019, which provided a social security net for the scores of undocumented women who toil in the fields and rear livestock each day, constituting a significant portion of the total labour force. The legislation ensured minimum wage, freedom from harassment and abuse, an eight-hour workday, sick leave and 120 days of maternity leave for women workers, along with a host of other benefits.

Despite some progress in legislation, there is a long way to go in ensuring workers’ inalienable rights and a life of dignity. For instance, on the International Day of Peasants in April, HWA issued a press statement expressing its disappointment with the provincial government, and highlighting the lack of improvement in the lives of rural workers. In the report, HWA reiterates that there is a lack of implementation on ground. But even beyond Sindh, the redistribution of land and workers’ rights is central to the uplifting of millions of Pakistanis. Yet they are forgotten or ignored by policymakers due to their lack of standing and voice in society, and due to deliberate and hostile resistance to changing the status quo, further exacerbating the cycle of poverty and powerlessness they are trapped in. The chains tighten.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2020