Speakers demand Hari courts, functional vigilance committees to curb child labour

Representatives of the Sindh Commission on Status of Women, civil society and labour rights bodies on Friday demanded the establishment of Hari courts and making the district vigilance committees (DVCs) functional to curb the practice of bonded labour in the province and to improve the conditions of peasants, particularly women, in the agriculture workforce.

Akram Khaslheli, president of the Hari Welfare Association (HWA), Nuzhat Shireen, chairperson of the Sindh Commission on Status of Women, Farhat Parveen, executive director of NOW Communities, Habib Uddin Juaniadi, president of the Peoples Labour Bureau, and Zeenia Shaukat of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) spoke to a press conference to discuss the findings of the HWA’s annual report ‘The Status of Peasants in Sindh 2019’, which had been released on Tuesday.

Speakers demanded from the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government to resume the land distribution scheme -- a project that had been initiated in 2018, but was discontinued for unknown reasons.

They also appreciated the government for making pro-labour laws, especially the Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2013 (SIRA), which provides the agriculture workers the right to unionise and a more recent law on agriculture women workers. “The Sindh government deserves appreciation for this historic legislation,” Khaskheli said.

However, they said that the implementation of these laws needed more attention of the provincial government and equally important was the strengthening of the institutional mechanisms to implement these laws.

“The SIRA was passed in 2013 but rules of business are yet to be framed. This undue delay is causing confusion around the implementation of the law particularly with reference to its extension to the agriculture sector,” Khaskheli said.

The recently enacted law on agriculture women was a revolutionary piece of legislation and could benefit thousands of women but only when it was implemented, he said.

Discussing the findings of the annual report, speakers said that the report points out the continuation of bonded labour in the province, which is a very disturbing fact. “There is an anti-bonded labour law in the province, but there is no implementation,” Shirin said.

She demanded of the government to immediately notify and make functional DVCs as required by the law in all the 29 districts of the province.

Speakers said that though the situation of workers in general was not good, agricultural workers which made up 38 per cent of the province’s 15.9 million labour force were more vulnerable. “Women workers in rural areas are marginalised,” Shirin said.

It is important that the necessary arrangements for the implementation of the law on agriculture women are put in place immediately, according to speakers.

Child labour in agriculture is considered as the worst form of child labour and children working in fields are more vulnerable to health hazardous and psychological shocks. “They are already robbed of their education and childhood but they even do not get enough food to survive a healthy life.”

“It is in this context that we demand the establishment of Hari courts so that peasants can approach them when their rights are violated. The establishment of the Hari courts was also included in the PPP manifesto and the party must fulfil it,” said Khaskheli. They said all other labour laws must also be extended to the agriculture workers.