Despite the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act, 2019, remaining on the statute books, millions of rural women in Sindh continue to work without the protections the law promises. A seminar organized by the Hari Welfare Association (HWA) in Mirpurkhas highlighted how the law’s provisions have yet to be implemented on the ground.
HWA president Akram Ali Khaskheli told attendees that roughly 15 million women across Sindh’s rural areas are engaged in agriculture, livestock and fisheries but lack legal recognition and basic safeguards. According to organisers, these women are routinely denied fair pay, access to healthcare and educational opportunities even though their labour underpins the rural economy.
Field conditions are harsh: women labourers typically earn between Rs 500 and Rs 700 per day, often work beyond eight hours, and perform physically demanding tasks that pose serious health risks. Many are involved in cotton picking, chilli harvesting, date processing, banana cultivation and wheat work—jobs that are labour-intensive yet remain undervalued and largely invisible.
The 2019 law was intended to change that. Its provisions include formal employment contracts, equal wages, 120 days of paid maternity leave, paid sick leave, the right to unionise, and a requirement that the Sindh Labour and Human Resource Department register agricultural women workers. It also includes protections against workplace harassment, abuse and gender-based discrimination.
Speakers at the Mirpurkhas event criticised authorities for failing to translate these legal guarantees into reality. HWA and other activists say the Act exists mainly on paper, with no meaningful enforcement or registration drive to secure workers’ rights.
Mirpurkhas Deputy Mayor Sumera Baloch said the government is working to empower women, but activists maintain that those efforts have not yet produced tangible improvements for female agricultural labourers.
Organisers and rights advocates at the seminar urged swift, transparent implementation steps: systematic registration of women workers, enforcement of wage and leave entitlements, health and safety measures in the fields, and active mechanisms to prevent harassment and discrimination. Without such action, the large cohort of rural women who sustain Sindh’s agricultural sector will remain without the formal protections the 2019 law was designed to provide.
