Karin Astrid Siegmann
karin@sdpi.org
Pakistan’s textile and clothing (T&C) industry stands on women’s shoulders. Under the scorching sun, thousands of female cotton pickers work in the cotton fields of Southern Punjab and Sindh, harvesting the raw material for the production of yarn, cloth, trousers, and t-shirts.
Cotton pickers are responsible for the T&C industry’s successes, but remain poor themselves. Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producer of the world and is expected to become number three in its consumption this year. Cotton is planted on 3m hectares of land, producing an output of 1.7m tonnes in 2003. An estimated 700,000 cotton pickers, most of them women and girls, are employed on the 1.6m cotton-growing farms in Pakistan during the picking season between September and December.
Working conditions were extremely poor in the past. In 1999, pickers’ pay was only about Rs40-50 per maund. One maund is what a fast picker can harvest in a day, and half of that weight is more common. Alternative sources of income are few, partially because unemployment is high in the cotton-growing belt, and to some extent due to these women’s low levels of schooling. Educational limitations also weaken their bargaining power vis-à-vis their employers. When their harvest is weighed, they are easily cheated on their daily wage. Overall, it is difficult for them to negotiate better working conditions. This reality is compounded by their gender that is often subjected to sexual harassment.
The working environment of cotton pickers is full of poisonous pesticides. During the 8-9 hours of daily picking, they are exposed to residuals of pesticide spraying. They consume water that is contaminated with pesticides. Besides, pesticides enter the food chain via the exposure of the soil, of their livestock, as residuals in cotton seeds that are pressed to produce edible oil. The result is chronic pesticide poisoning. One of the few studies conducted on the health effects of pesticide application in Pakistani cotton cultivation finds that 74% of female cotton pickers are moderately pesticide-poisoned, while the remaining quarter has reached dangerous levels of poisoning. The T&C sector, based on home-grown and hand-picked cotton, is the country’s most important industrial and export sector. The year 2005 has meant a quantum leap towards freer global trade in T&C. The quota system, that had constrained exports to the main markets for T&C products, was abolished under a World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on January 1, 2005. Previously, T&C producers had to purchase quotas in order to be able to sell their products to the main markets. Since January 2005, however, buyers and sellers of T&C products no longer rely on access to quotas in order to export to the USA, EU or Canada. This means a more competitive environment for a large number of T&C exporters across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
SDPI conducted a study in 2005 to assess whether this change in the external trade environment also trickled down to the cotton pickers and made a difference in their working conditions. What difference could a change in the trade environment for T&C occur in these women’s lives and livelihoods?
SDPI started its investigation with two contrary assumptions. The intensified competition that is resulting from the abolition of the quota system has two aspects: price and quality. Prices for T&C products have dropped because of the harsher competition amongst producers. If manufacturers try to compensate such reduced income through cost cuts, this might be passed on through the textile chain as lower wages to cotton pickers. On the other hand, producers try to comply with environmental and social standards that are becoming an increasingly common demand of buyers in the North. One aspect here is lower charges of T&C products with hazardous materials, such as dyes but also pesticides. If this is the result of a freer trade scenario, less strain may be put on cotton pickers’ health.
The preliminary results, however, show that little has changed for cotton pickers’ bitter harvest. T&C exports might have picked up, but the cotton fields haven’t become a more likable location since the quota system expired. Women’s wages still stand at similarly low levels of Rs50-70. Considering that price levels have climbed more than a fifth between 2004 and 2005, only purchasing power has actually declined substantially. Pesticide use has grown from year to year, and yet, protective gear is still almost absent from the fields. Resultantly, women complain about headache, nausea, and skin irritations but don’t have the money to consult a doctor and buy medicine.
Evidently, if there is any link between the trade environment and the livelihoods of cotton pickers, it matches the pessimistic assumption that harsher competition leads to pressure on wages. Deeper analysis is needed to dig out the real reasons for the static hardship of cotton pickers. Their weak bargaining power surely is a factor. The pesticide treadmill, i.e., the necessity to use more and more pesticides due to resistances developed in pests, and also the fact that pesticide prices have dropped due to import liberalization in 1995 facilitating greater consumption, is a serious threat to their health and livelihoods.
An important factor may be the political economy of the cotton chain in Pakistan. Yarn producers have a powerful position in the industry and their economic importance is paralleled by the political influence they exert. Despite the rhetoric of demanding clean cotton--i.e., cotton not contaminated by cotton sticks, human hair, and polyethylene bags, as an input for their spinning mills--no incentives are provided for growers to supply such uncontaminated cotton. Obviously, the profits that can be reaped by selling poor quality yarn based on very low labour costs are higher than the premia for uncontaminated yarn and cloth. However, recently a decision has been taken to provide such incentives through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP). If implemented, this might translate into better pay for cotton pickers as it is they, ultimately, who control this type of contamination.
What to do? Clearly, cotton pickers need to be provided with wages above subsistence level, e.g. in the form of incentives for clean cotton. The abovementioned new policy to provide quality premia might be a step in the right direction. Awareness should be raised about the relevance of protective gear for all stakeholders involved in cotton cultivation. Legal and other incentives should be provided to cotton pickers and growers for actually wearing protective equipment. For that, easily understandable brochures should be developed targeted at various addressees in regional languages. The GoP should implement bans on severely toxic substances/products, sanction their implementation, and explore the potential to reduce pesticide application through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and/or organic farming.
To address the skewed distribution of bargaining power between agricultural workers, their organizations should be established and strengthened in order to make sure they can jointly voice their concerns and work for improvement of their working conditions. More vulnerable female agricultural workers should be targeted in particular.
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