SDPI’s Clean Pick Campaign
More than two million female cotton pickers work in the cotton fields of Sindh and Southern Punjab, but their wages are extremely low and their working environment is full of poisonous pesticides. Excessive and unsafe use of pesticides results in severe health hazards, such as skin and respiratory diseases as well as cancer. Unfortunately, the cotton growers, industrialists, the government as well as the larger public are indifferent to or unaware of the plight of these workers.
On Dec 9, 2006, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Sindh Community Foundation launched two brochures on preventive and protective measures against pesticide poisoning for cotton pickers/sprayers in English, Urdu and Sindhi at the Hyderabad Press Club. During the ceremony the miserable working and living conditions of women cotton pickers was highlighted. Experts demanded that landowners, pesticide producers and retailers should take effective measures to protect cotton pickers’ health and livelihood. They also urged the government to extend labor laws to cotton pickers and other agricultural workers for protecting their rights and safeguarding their health.
Ms. Basheera Solangi, Mr. Nazeer Ahmad Memon, Dr. Nadeem Ahmad, Mr. Zulfiqar Halipota, Mr. Faisal Gorchani, Javed Hussain and Dr. Karin Astrid Siegmann addressed the ceremony.
To order copies of the brochures or the brochures' designs please fill out the form or contact the following individuals for details:
Aimal Khan aimal@sdpi.org
Faisal Gorchani gorchani@sdpi.org
Nazima Shaheen nazima@sdpi.org
Karin Astrid Siegmann karin@sdpi.org
The brochures have been reprinted by the WWF Pakistan and dissiminated to more than 2000 farmers in Sindh and Punjab.
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