Women workers demand end to gender-based wage disparities, protection from workplace harassment

Reactionary social norms and economic oppression have relegated women to second-class citizenship. Meanwhile, increasing environmental destruction, the capture of water resources, and the seizure of agricultural land have further worsened their plight. Women’s struggle is not only against social and economic inequalities but also for climate justice. True social, economic, and climate justice can only be achieved by dismantling the capitalist and feudal structures that sustain systemic oppression.

Speakers at the 'Mehnatkash Aurat Rally', organized by the Home-Based Women Workers Federation Pakistan on International Women’s Day, expressed these views. Hundreds of women participated in the rally, which began at the Boy Scouts Auditorium and was led by Comrade Zahra Khan, General Secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF).

This year, the rally was held under the slogan: "Class Resistance Against the Looting of the Indus River, Our Land, and Our Environment."

The gathering culminated at the Arts Council, where leaders of women, labour, and human rights organizations addressed the participants. They highlighted the growing gender oppression, regressive social attitudes, and increasing insecurity for women. Today, homes, streets, marketplaces, educational institutions, and workplaces have become unsafe for women. Millions of working women are forced to labour in exploitative environments where incidents of sexual harassment have increased alarmingly. Institutions responsible for preventing harassment have failed to act due to their inherent biases against women.

HBWWF General Secretary Zehra Khan said the 2022 floods had adversely impacted the Sindh province and, three years on, the displaced population was still living without homes. She added that the floods destroyed thousands of acres of crops and livelihoods.

She also stated that resistance against the six canals project and efforts to encroach on Sindh land would continue. Khan warned that climate change and environmentally destructive projects were worsening women’s economic and social exploitation. “Pakistan ranks among the top ten countries most affected by environmental disasters, yet policymakers have adopted policies that further degrade the environmental crisis rather than addressing it,” she said.

She emphasized that gender-based wage disparity had reached dangerous levels, making it one of the highest in the region. The continuous informalization of the economy and production has led to widespread lawlessness, disproportionately affecting women. The number of women working in informal sectors has risen rapidly, exacerbating their economic vulnerability.

National Trade Union Federation General Secretary Nasir Mansoor said, "The Indus River, a lifeline for Pakistan and particularly Sindh, is being blocked under the pretext of water management projects, putting 4.9 million hectares of Sindh’s agricultural land at risk of desertification. Salinization of groundwater has already reduced crop yields, and the Indus Delta—once home to 900,000 people—has nearly vanished. The sea has swallowed three million hectares of agricultural land, forcing millions into displacement, creating a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Mansoor added that now, the anti-Sindh agenda was being advanced through the illegal construction of six canals, further threatening the region’s survival and one of the oldest civilizations. “The colonial-era plundering of the Indus River continues today under new justifications, from dams to canals, depriving Sindh of its rightful share of water,” he commented.

“The blocking of Indus water is not just a rural crisis—it will also lead to a humanitarian disaster in cities, particularly Karachi, which depends on the river for 80 percent of its water supply. Hyderabad (90 percent) and Sukkur (100 percent) also rely entirely on the Indus, making the ongoing water theft a crisis of survival for millions,” the NTUF leader added.

Renowned writer Noorul Huda Shah said climate change had already made the lives of the poor populace of Sindh miserable, and now the federal government's six canals project on the Indus River was likely to make it worse. She said it was a matter of survival for generations to come, and the elites were less bothered about it because they had the means to move out of the country. She urged working women to raise their voices against this injustice and resist the project.

Asad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Karachi was most vulnerable to the canal project as the city was at the tail end of the Indus River. He added that the rulers were lying about the project and hiding the fact that it was intended to benefit capitalists and only a single province.

Renowned journalist and activist Mehnaz Rehman said climate change was adversely affecting women and diminishing their economic, social, and legal powers. She said dependence on fossil fuels was primarily responsible for climate change, and the phenomenon was playing havoc with the lives of poor people.

Transgender activist Kami Sid said the capitalist system had brainwashed people into thinking only about themselves. She added that transgender people were also impacted by climate change and that their needs should be considered when formulating policies.

Other speakers condemned the feudal lords and ruling elites of Sindh for their complicity in anti-Sindh water projects and corporate land grabs. They reaffirmed their commitment to resisting the destruction of the Indus River, recognizing its survival as a matter of life and death for future generations.

The Mehnatkash Aurat Rally called upon the people of Punjab and progressive forces across Pakistan to stand in solidarity with Sindh. Just as ruling elites across Sindh, Punjab, and the federal government were united in implementing anti-people policies, the oppressed must also unite to resist these life-threatening projects.

The rally demanded an immediate stop to the blockade and theft of Indus River water, ensuring fair distribution under the 1991 Water Accord while abandoning environmentally destructive policies. It called for guaranteeing living wages for women workers and eliminating gender-based wage disparities.

Participants urged the abolition of all discriminatory laws against women and transgender persons, protection from workplace harassment, and the enforcement of anti-harassment committees in all institutions. The rally further demanded land reforms with land allocations to landless women farmers, the registration of all workers, including domestic workers and farmers, in social security and pension schemes, and an increase in maternity leave for working women. Additionally, it called for enforcing an eight-hour workday and weekly holidays, establishing childcare centers at workplaces, ensuring proportional representation of women in all institutions, and recovering all missing political and social activists. It also sought concrete measures to promote girls’ education, an increase in the number of girls’ schools, the abolition of the contract labour system with permanent employment for all workers, the completion of the registration process for domestic workers with protective legislation, the end of media restrictions and censorship, and stopping the leasing of agricultural land to foreign entities under the guise of cooperative farming.

Other notable speakers at the event included Subhagi Bheel of the Sindh Agriculture General Workers Union, Saira Feroz of the Home-Based Women Workers Garment Union, Shahnaz Rao, former president of the Sindhi Hari Tehrik, Samar Jatoi, president of the Sindh Hari Committee, Hani Baloch of the Zadman Welfare Association, Jameela Abdul Latif, general secretary of the Home-Based Bangle Workers Union, Hyderabad, and other leaders from various labor and social organizations.