The Hands That Feed Us: Struggles of Women Agricultural Worker’s Rights in Pakistan

9 January 25, 2023
TitleYearPublisherRelated SDGFormatDownloadPattern
The Hands That Feed Us: Struggles of Women Agricultural Worker’s Rights in Pakistan2022Asian Forum for Human Rights and
Development		SDG 5PDFClick hereResearch

The agricultural sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy as it contributes around 22 per cent of the GDP of the country per annum. The whole sector remained under federal control for policy and structural reforms until 2010, whereas provinces were responsible for implementation and delivery. After the 18th constitutional amendment in 2010, the sector devolved to the provinces for better policy reforms and management; however, food security matters are still under the control of the federation. More than 70 per cent of the rural labour class is associated with the agriculture sector, whereas around 90 per cent of them are women agricultural labourers. Neither federal nor provincial governments have ever tried to protect the rights of agricultural labourers, particularly women agricultural workers. The majority of our political leaders and parliamentarians are feudal and landlords, therefore labour laws and other social protection policies were never applied to agricultural workers at large.