Project launched to help women cotton pickers earn money in off-season

Hyderabad: The Sindh Community Foundation (SCF), considering the socio-economic vulnerability and climate change impacts on the lives of people and livelihoods, has launched a literacy and offseason poverty reduction programme for women cotton workers with the support of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network.

SCF Executive Director Javed Hussain said the women cotton workers played pivotal roles for the textile industry but they faced poor working and socio-economic conditions.

He highlighted that these cotton workers were lacking in literacy, which also resulted in their exploitation. He said only 10 per cent of female cotton workers received primary education.

The SCF has launched the literacy programme for female cotton workers of 30 villages of Matiari district for the next two years. In the first year, 15 literacy centers called Suhaee Centre (Suhaee in Sindhi means light) have been launched in 15 villages of the district where 525 women cotton workers would gain basic literacy through attending classes of the informal education module.

The SCF head said that cotton picking was a seasonable job of four to six months mainly carried by women workers. He added that those workers suffered poverty in the off-season.

He said the women in those centres would also get income generation training and seed support to initiate small-level income generation activities.

The training would include how to run small businesses like milk production and home-based agro-food security solutions.

The off-season income generation skills training would enable women cotton pickers to be involved in economic activities for a decent livelihood even in off-seasons, Hussain said, adding that the project would also raise awareness among those workers regarding occupational safety, decent working conditions, and climate change adaptation.