Mehnatkash Aurat Rally to be staged on women’s day against ‘anti-Sindh water projects’

Representatives of working-class women, political and human rights organizations announced on Monday that the Mehnatkash Aurat Rally scheduled to be taken out on March 8 will be attended by a large number of women workers, farmers, victims of environmental destruction and anti-Sindh projects.

Addressing a press conference held in connection with the celebration of International Working Women’s Day, rights activists and representatives of labours organizations said that working women were engaged in a continuous struggle for social, political, and economic justice.

They said that with each passing day, new crises disproportionately impact the most oppressed sections of society—women, the elderly, and children. They emphasized that the entire world, particularly the region where Sindh is located, had been experiencing the devastating consequences of climate change and exploitative water and agricultural projects, threatening both human existence and the region’s ancient civilization.

They said that Sindh’s 5,000-year-old civilization had been pushed to the brink of economic, social, and environmental destruction due to the reckless policies of the ruling elite. Climate-induced floods and heavy rains had caused unprecedented devastation, while the systematic plundering of the Indus River and agricultural lands had put millions of lives—and the region’s very existence—at risk.

They stressed that the consequences of those policies were evident in the destruction of the ancient Indus Delta, the disappearance of mangrove forests, and the submergence of agricultural lands into the sea.

Coastal villages and towns were being swallowed by the advancing sea, forcing millions to migrate. The lack of water, or its untimely availability, was turning fertile lands barren, reducing crop production, lowering cotton yields by 25%, and triggering a severe food crisis. Cities had been facing acute water shortages, groundwater levels were depleting, and unbearable heat waves were intensifying.

Labor and human rights activists emphasized that Sindh had always resisted every act of water aggression. It was through mass resistance that the anti-Sindh and anti-environment Kalabagh Dam project was defeated—a project designed to irrigate lands in Cholistan.

They said that even today, the construction of controversial canals, which rely on the theft of Indus River water, poses another grave threat, adding that these projects risk turning Sindh barren while making other lands fertile under the guise of the so-called “Green Pakistan Initiative.”

They added that beyond water theft, vast tracts of agricultural land were also being seized under the pretext of corporate farming.

That large-scale land and water grab will have devastating consequences for Sindh’s cities, villages, coastal areas, and millions of residents. The effects of environmental and water destruction were manifesting in the form of torrential rains, floods, heat waves, forced displacements, and crises like COVID-19, with the most vulnerable—women, children, and the elderly—bearing the brunt.

“Given this dire situation, every citizen of Sindh—whether from villages or cities, whether a farmer or a laborer—must recognize the looming threat and play their historical role. That is why working-class women have decided to mark International Working Women’s Day with a strong stance against anti-Sindh water projects, land grabs under corporate farming, and the worsening environmental crisis, they stated.

They announced that thousands of women workers, farmers, and victims of environmental destruction and anti-Sindh projects from across Sindh will participate in the Mehnatkash Aurat Rally on March 8, raising the slogan: “Class Resistance Against the Looting of the Indus River, Our Land, and Our Environment.”

The representatives informed that the rally will begin at 3pm on Saturday, March 8, from Youth Auditorium and proceed to the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, where representatives of political, human rights, and labour organizations, along with affected communities, will address the gathering.

The press conference was addressed by Chairperson Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Asad Iqbal Butt, General Secretary National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) Nasir Mansoor, General Secretary Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) Zahra Khan, General Secretary Karachi Bar Association Advocate Mohammad Ghulam Rehman Korai, Senior Vice Chairperson Pakistan Fisher Folk ForumFatima Majeed and others.