Chair: Mr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Member Plant Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad, Pakistan
Discussant: Ms. Najma Sadeque, Founder and Executive Committee Member, Shirkat Gah, Karachi, Pakistan
Panel Organizer: Dr. Karin Astrid Siegmann, Research Fellow, SDPI, Islamabad, Pakistan
In the panel titled Ignored Producers: Women’s Role in Agricultural Sector, while presenting a 
research study on the “Weakest Link in the Textile Chain: Pakistani Cotton Pickers after the Quota Expiry”, Dr. Karin Astrid Siegmann, Research Fellow, SDPI, proposed that there should be legal coverage of agricultural sector, national and international policies should be engendered, gender gaps in resources access should be eliminated, pickers’ organizations and support for ethical trade agenda based on the social and environmental consequences should be strengthened. She emphasized that the precarious types and poor conditions of cotton pickers’ work are embedded in their social position assigned by patriarchal gender norms. The emerging picture shows macro-economic success that is parasitic on the poor bargaining power of women workers at the level of cotton fields. The outlined competitiveness on women’s front is not sustainable in terms of agricultural workers’ health and well-being and probably in the long term also not in terms of the sustained competitiveness of cheap cotton-based manufactures that compromise on quality, pointed out Dr. Siegmann.
Dr. Rukhsana Hasan, Incharge of Gender Studies Programme, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, presented her research study on “Cholistani Women and Informal Economy: Survival Strategies in Times of Economic Restructuring”. She said that there is a tremendous increase in women’s workload, with consequent loss of her support network, and economic independence in Cholistan desert. Restriction on movement beyond the home, and concept of purdah (veil/segregation) may have important implications with regard to exposure to information, development of interpersonal skills and networks, and opportunities to take independent action. She concluded that gender division of labor within the work force of Cholistani community was not created by market economy, but that it did create a system in which pre-existing gender distinctions were reproduced in the wage labor system. Patterns of male authority at home were also extended to the area of wage labor relations. It manifested itself in the form of access to the urban market centers, contact with outsiders (in this case agents and jobbers from the city) and their perceived role as breadwinner and the head of the household in the eyes of jobbers.
Discussion
Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Member Plant Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan, chaired the panel on Ignored Producer: Women’s Role in Agricultural Sector. He said that that the pesticide spray male and female cotton pickers are directly exposed to have detrimental impacts on their health. He also stressed the need for establishing the women’s organization in the cotton growing areas.
Ms. Najma Sadeque, founder member and member of Executive Committee, Shirkat Gah, Karachi, Pakistan, presented her views as a discussant. She said that despite coverage in Tenancy Act 1997, no government has paid attention to restoring the land and ultimately giving its entitlement to women and men. In order to change the situation of women in all spheres of life, incentives should be created for both women and men, emphasized Ms Sadeque.
Reported by Nazima Shaheen
| Email Article |  |
Print Article | |
Next Article |
PDF Format
