PICKING COTTON, COLLECTING PAINS
(Socio-economic Condition of Cotton Picking Women in South Punjab)

Researcher: Amjad Nazeer

Oxfam GB, Islamabad (Pakistan) (October 24, 2012)

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CONTENTS

Executive Summary………………………………………………………….……….……...…2

The Euphoria of Agri-economy: ……………………………………………...….…………..7
Higher Yield - Between Myth and Reality: ..........................................................................................8

The Poison Business: ………………………………….……………………………………….9 Dealing in Pesticides: ….…………………………………………………………………......10 Socio-Economic Condition of Cotton Pickers: …………………………………………....11 Cotton Picking and Extended Agri-tasks: …………………………………….……..…….18 Bargaining Vulnerabilities: ………………………………………………………………….19 Clever Calculations to Rob off Picker’s Labour: ……………………..…….…………..…20 Picking Cotton in Poisonous Fields:…………………………………..…………..…..……23 Growers and Dealers attitude towards Pickers: …………………………..………..……..27 Labour Laws and Cotton Pickers: ……………………………………………………..……29 Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations: …………………..…….….………..…….29 End Notes and references: ………………………………………..……………….…………34 Bibliography: …………………………………………………….……………….………..…36

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Executive Summary

Approximately, seven million women are engaged in cotton picking across Pakistan. More or less, one third of them come from South Punjab. The incidence of poverty in rural South Punjab is estimated to be the highest after Baluchistan and parts of Sindh, with women’s condition much worse than men. Poverty and vulnerability of the cotton picking women speaks volumes about that. Women laborers usually start picking cotton from a very early age. For traditional variety, they were paid one-twentieth share of their pick. Picking modified breed, however, is monetized but the amount of wages is terribly low and highly fluctuates within and across the region. Paid against quantity not quality, tinkering and tampering to rob off women’s produce is very common. Conventionalized and other deductions are part of the day to day business. Tilting scales, underpayment, deliberate miscalculations and delayed imbursement of wage is a matter routine. Non-literacy and gendered discriminations supplement their vulnerability. Unconvincing and unjustified, but farmers, retailers, dealers and middlemen keep extending their own arguments based on market measures. In fact, a tight ring of oppression and abuse operates around to exploit women’s invaluable labour. Set aside its own energy and trade crisis, Cotton and Textile Industry thrives on women’s labour. The so called free market and free labour is culpable for massive inadequacies in the sector. Despite elaborate statements, women do not freely pick and chose their fields of cotton and prices to work at. Limited mobility, religious and other socio-cultural constrains compel them to work in select fields with certain landlords at whatever wages they offer. Other economic compulsions like collecting fodder, fuel-wood and tendering livestock holds them back to work with landlords in the vicinity year in and year out. Besides picking cotton, hoeing, seedling, sapling, weeding, thinning, collecting and
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thrashing are also part of women’s agriculture responsibilities without substantial economic benefits. Therefore, bargaining for better wages to pick cotton becomes practically impossible. Never defined as bonded or slave labour the arrangement, in nutshell, is no less cruel than that. As it is vivid, health hazards to cotton picking women are never gender-neutral. Excessive work and exposure to toxic chemicals renders them vulnerable to chronic headaches, nausea, sickness, respiratory contractions and skin irritations. Cuts and bruises that women frequently receive in picking multiply the likelihood of pesticides transfusion into their blood. More specifically, the pesticides poison cause erythrocyte cholinesterase and lowered plasma cholinesterase of severe or moderate intensity. Consecutive exposure to pesticides, in whatever form, takes the diseases’ intensity to the dangerous level. Cough, itching, urticaria, deramal blisters, vertigo, respiratory disorder, sneezing, rhinitis, dizziness and muscular pain are common symptoms observed in women in picking season. Chronic fungal and corneal ulcers are also reported quite frequently. Perforation or thinning of cornea, if not properly treated, leads to eyeball-collapsing, blindness and/or corneal opacities. Most of the picking women are not familiar to safety measures, equipment or any such thing to minimize or resist the effects of poison. Increased frequency of late sprays supplements further harms to their health. Except apparent symptoms like skin rashes, cough or headaches, men appear to be unaware of the dangerous effects of cotton picking to women like reproductive complications, breast cancer, blindness and chronic ulcers etc. Oblivious to women’s hard work, fatigue and intensive engagement in cotton picking and other agriculture tasks, they remain busy in their own work or enjoyable outdoor. Apart from social norms, abject poverty does not allow them to adopt even the simplest precautionary measures known or easily adaptable. Cotton, the so called white gold, is the largest contributing factor in the agri-economy of Pakistan that accounts for almost half the labour and one-fourth of our national income. Boosting up agricultural production, especially cotton, remains an overall thrust of our national growth and national economy. Therefore, high-intensity cropping and higher yield continue to be the producer’s priority. Women’s labour, the key contributing factor in agriculture and cotton production in particular, is seldom acknowledged in whole system.

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The most valuable role of collecting and cleaning cotton is also played by women. Ironically, farmers, industry and agriculture institutions all desire them to do their job keenly, effectively and efficiently, without considering the painful circumstances they work in, without ensuring fair wages, adequate training and provision of equipment and precautionary measures. Characterized with a range of problems, save higher yield, transgenically improvised bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton has beset agriculture sector of Pakistan. South Punjab throws in 65% of Bt produce in the country. Swiftly developing pest-resistance and corrupting non-transgenic flora, it is brutally invading biodiversity and food security all around. Popular claims of Bt’s higher yield, the major commercial attraction, are rarely substantiated on ground. Factual figures place its’ production much lower with exorbitantly high input and irrigation cost. Susceptible to pests and problems, by and large, three-fourth of all pesticides is sprinkled on Bt alone. Developing countries, Pakistan on top, use one-fifth of all pesticides produced in the world. Pesticides devour more than half the farmer’s expense and its frequency is constantly on the rise. Bt production in the country has reached a threshold, where its per-unit-yield plummets, quality goes down and the business turns uneconomical. Despite maniac higher yield desire, more than two-thirds of the farmers get seriously depressed by lower yield for one or another reason every year. Stamped as poisonous, our cotton and textile (C&T) products fetch lesser prices in world market and much acclaimed benefits already show signs of dwindling. Pesticides and insecticides, heavily cherished by transgenic species, are ‘shattering landscapes’, ‘stripping threads of organic kinship’, ‘uncoupling associations’, ‘bludgeoning earth, ‘ripping fabrics apart’ and ‘disrupting’ natural processes, otherwise complex, mutually beneficial, balanced, interdependent and integrated. Fruits, vegetables, cereals and water samples tested in cotton growing areas are found heavily contaminated by multiple pesticides residues. Mere enhancement of pickers’ wages, training and precautionary measures will not help. A cautious, reasonable, ethical and ecologically sound management of nature and biological pests control is important to be espoused. Between ecological equilibrium and wild forces of nature like pests-assault and infestations, a middle ground to preserve human future and facilitate nature is highly recommended.

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Reversing the trends of degrading nature and augmenting poverty is not possible without human- and nature- friendly methods of agriculture. Farmers knowledge about pest and crop management and multi-cropping also needs to be updated. Increased attention to livestock and food crops need to be paid. Less harmful techniques of higher yields are out there or can be innovated. Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) and National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) need to be empowered and resourced for the purpose. Radical policy and practice reforms are now call of the hour. Effective implementation of Agriculture Pesticides Ordinance and Rules formulated in 1971 & 1973 is essential to stop farmers and corporates from frequent violation with impunity. Food and Agriculture Regulation, adopted in 1965, essentially needs to be amended to address the issue of pesticide residues. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAOs) ‘International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides’ discouraging agro-chemicals and promoting integrated pest management, and National Environment Policy Measures (2005) need to be widely disseminated and practiced. Besides that, Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), involving a broad range of pre- and post-harvest management practices developed by Pakistani experts should also be extended to the farmers. Alternative progressive measures are already being adopted in certain other developing countries. Civil society, print and electronic media need to highlight poisonous effects of Bt and women’s exploitation in the sector. Discouraging Bt and promoting alternatives is not possible without effective state measures and coordinated efforts from NGOs, independent institutions, experts and associated corporates.

Establishing a provincial and national body to measure and maintain ‘Minimum Residue Level’ as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) and other relevant institutions is a must. A regulatory body, comprising on recognized and responsible agri- and health professionals be developed to extend or prohibit the import of certain seeds and pesticides. Suggested measures will not only save health of the cotton pickers rather protect whole food chain from being contaminated. Minimum wage and other labour laws recommended and partly adopted in formal sector must be extended to cotton picking and other agriculture tasks. Periodical examination of women’s health, so long as the menace is eliminated, must be ensured to protect them from chronic contaminations.
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Provision of safety equipment and precautionary measures must be made a binding for farmers and cotton industry before they hire women for the task.

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PICKINGNG COTTON, COLLECTING PAINS

The Euphoria of Agri-economy: Cotton, the so called white gold, is the largest contributing factor in the agri-economy of Pakistan. It accounts for almost half the labour and one-fourth of national income. Grown on 3 million hectares with an annual turnover of 2 million tons, Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producer and second largest yarn exporting in the world. It also feeds into textile, the largest industrial subsector of Pakistan’s economy. Cotton’s value stands somewhere around 101,256 million rupees a year. Boosting up agriculture, especially the cotton produce remains policy thrust of our national growth and economy. Therefore, high-intensity cropping and higher-yield continue to be the farmers’ top priorityi. In this whole phenomenon women’s contribution is rarely acknowledged in the public and private sector. Characterized with a range of problems, save higher yield, transgenically improvised bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton has beset agriculture sector of Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan has officially approved six varieties so much so that Sindh and Punjab Seed Corporation themselves sell certain varieties of Bt. Sown in April-May and harvested from August to December, it is commonly known as Amreekan Cotton in Pakistan. Punjab is the largest cotton cultivating region whereas two-thirds of the whole produce comes from South Punjab alone. Comprising on less than two hectares on average, most farms in South Punjab concentrate only on Bt. For instance, about 100,000
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small farmers and more than 60% of the farmland is occupied by cotton just in Multan district. Monopolized by multinationals, storing or reusing its seed is legally apprehensible. Corrupting non-transgenic flora and swiftly developing pest-resistance, Bt is brutally invading biodiversity and food security in Pakistanii.

Higher Yield - Between Myth and Reality: Popular claims of 40 to 50 mounds per acre are rarely substantiated on ground. In reality, the figure stands around 20 to 25 mounds per acre with rapidly escalating input and irrigation cost. Close to half of its bolls and flowers tumble down prematurely and more than one-fourth are chomped up by bollworms. Heavily attacked by jessids, thrips, aphids, mealybug, dustybug, leaf-rolling and several other pests and diseases, Bt is posing unprecedented environmental, technical and economic challenges. Hit by cotton leave curl virus (CLCV), bollworm, whitefly, our cotton crop has been a massive failure more than once since 1990s. It has pushed the environment-friendly and lessinfested local or desi variety to the verge of extinction. The only stigma, experts and farmers place on it, is its lower yield. Susceptible to pests and problems, by and large 80% of all the pesticides are sprinkled on Bt. Developing countries, Pakistan on top, use one fifth of all pesticides produced in the world. Dribbling away USD300 millions every year pesticides devour more than half of a farmer’s expenses. Its frequency has jumped from 3 to 4 in 1990s to 12 to 15 at present ramming the process to a threshold where per-unit-yield is plummetting, quality going down and production turns uneconomicaliii. Despite maniac tendencies of securing higher yields, more than two-thirds of the farmers are seriously depressed from one or another pest every yeariv. Drenched in poison, our cotton and textile (C&T) products increasingly fetch lower prices in the world marketv and much acclaimed economic benefits show signs of dwindling. The author’s own interviews conducted in several districts of South Punjab validate similar analyses. Not a single farmer appeared to be entirely satisfied with his profits or produce. It’s a vicious circle of pesticides costs and unending desires for profits that farmer is terrible trapped in. Aware of Bt’s substandard quality and associated problems, most farmers grow desi for their own use. “If we need cotton for our own use, say for some one’s marriage or domestic purposes, we grow local variety on a bigha or two. It is

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softer without a poisonous content as it does not attract pests as does the Bt,” says Zawar Hussain Shah, a middle income farmer from Khanewal1.

The Poison Business:
“Pesticides and insecticides, heavily cherished by transgenic species, are ‘shattering landscapes’, ‘stripping threads of organic kinship’, ‘uncoupling ecological associations’, ‘bludgeoning earth, ‘ripping apart fabrics’ and ‘disrupting’ natural processes, otherwise complex, mutually beneficial, balanced, interdependent and integrated” is the central message of Rachel Carson’s seminal work, “Silent Spring” surfacing in the sixth decade of last century. The subject was never as important for Pakistan as it is today. The law of nature must not be defied with impunity, she argues. The ‘ecological web of life’ is interconnected and symbiotic. Minor changes, like wholesale drenching of soil with chemicals, rebound across time and space. Poisons and pesticides, in her views, are not only harmful for humans but counter-effective as well. Developing resistance, upon which cotton-pests posses a command, they kill plant-friendly organisms as well as birds and animals. A cycle of infestation and counter resurgence of targeted species begins by the slipshod application of pesticides. Overly active especially in third world countries, chemical industries extort millions of dollars from this business. Monsanto and other chemical industries reverberated fiercely, as they respond to any such efforts today, against the Carson’s powerful memorandum to respect the balance of nature and ecologyvi. To decimate pests and locusts, pesticides business was initiated by the government of Pakistan herself in the mid 1950s by importing several hundred tons of toxic chemicals. Distributed through agriculture extension workers, Plant Protection Department was responsible for the job for decades till the business was privatized in 1990s. To lure farmers, it was heavily subsidized in the beginning and areal spray was free of charge. Declining natural defense and complicating the problem, its’ consumption has risen ever since inclining the import from 700 tons in the 1990s to 100,000 tons (approximately) in the last decade, roughly costing 8 billion rupees every year. Antagonized by a variety of poisons, natural foes of cotton pests have declined to less than 10% at present. In near past, the government had to dump 2000 tons of expired toxics, imported earlier by the Ministry of Agriculturevii.
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The field work in Khanewal was facilitated by Tahseen Raza from Damaan Development Foundation, Multan.

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Fruits, vegetables, soil and water samples tested in cotton growing areas are found contaminated by multiple pesticides residues. 70% of the water, 28.5% of fruits and 37% vegetable samples exceed maximum residue limits (MRL) set by European Economic Commission (EEC). All samples of top soils are contaminated with various levels of pesticides residues. The cases of using poisons, only recommended for cotton, over fruits and vegetables were also noticed. Grazing fodder from the same fields, milk and meat of the livestock consumed by human are not immune from contamination. Cotton seed processed for cooking oil is also polluted by pesticides. In fact the whole food chain is contaminated by the ‘cocktail effects ‘of pesticides. Disastrous for human health, even aquifers are getting contaminatedviii. In Carson’s words, “for the first time in the history of the world even human beings are subjected to the contact of chemicals from the moment of conception to their death”. If the statement is absolutely true anywhere, it is here in cotton gowning areas of South Punjab.

Dealing in Pesticides:
Most of the medium or small farmers have either limited or no idea about which poison to purchase for what type of bugs or disease. Information readily available with them mainly comes through a word of mouth, newspaper commercial, Agriculture Department’s and Monsanto or Syngenta circulated literature (to those who are literate enough) or provided by the pests dealers. Extension workers are also a source but their visits are few and far between. Pest dealers are poorly qualified to prescribe a poison. Knowledgeable of their disqualification to sell the stuff, none of the ‘dealer’ was comfortable in talking with the researcher despite taking them in confidence. Normally, they woo farmers to buy, what earns better profits for them. If a farmer collects pesticides on credit, very common with small farmers, he is compelled to buy whatever is available or recommended by the dealer. Demanding popular pesticides is also common. Some of the experienced farmers test a pesticide on part of their crop before asking for more. Most farmers, however, are poorly qualified to determine the nature of infestation, appropriate time and frequency of applying a pesticide.

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Cotton picking women, excessively coming in contact with pesticides both in term of time-span and intensity, are not familiar with an assortment of pesticides brands. Obviously they fail to understand the difference between one or another bug or brand of a poison. The nomenclature of pests or pesticides is completely alien to them. Not a single cotton picker, at least to whom I spoke to, could utter the name of a pest, plague or popularly used pesticide, they are repeatedly exposed to. Nevertheless, they do put their own names like jooian (lice), makhyan (flies), tindryan (insects) or keryey (worms) to the organisms swarming in cotton fields. “We keep hearing multiple names of cotton diseases and medicines but fail to remember, said a group of women in Muddwalla, Alipur. “I knew a few but none is coming to my mind at the moment” responded a woman in Sagwan, Chack 53M, Shujabad”. Most of them are convinced that it is men’s specialty for being very technical or scientific things. However, all of them had a very clear idea that cotton picking and pesticides is harmful to their health.

Socio-Economic Condition of Cotton Pickers:
It is the helpless hands of women underneath that actually bear the burden of agriculture economy and vast business of cotton and textile. About 7 million women are involved in cotton picking across Pakistan. Whereas one third of them, approximately 2 million women, pick early and late variety of cotton in South Punjab starting from the middle of hot and humid August down to the chillingly frosty month of December. After rural Baluchistan and parts of Sindh, the incidence of poverty in rural outskirts of South Punjab is estimated to be the highest. A little less than half the population of this region languishes through the terrible tragedies of poverty. Women’s poverty could easily be projected to much higher a level than over all figures. Picking cotton has turned exclusively a women specific business, so much so that it has developed socio-cultural legitimacy in rural areas of South Punjab. “Men cannot pick cotton as women cannot spray or plough, said an old lady in from Muddwala, Alipur in the discussion group. In response to why only women, the landlord Zawar Hussains says, “as women cannot plough or spray, so are men who cannot pick cotton. It is the nature’s divide. Men have got several other things to do”. I could not happen to find a man even a boy picking cotton. Picking cotton has

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become entirely a feminine activity. It is all women. Be it injury or illness, men do not care whatever happens to us as a result of picking cotton. They are busy in their own work and other enjoyables. “I am, in a way, born and grew up in cotton, how can I tell you for how long I have been in this profession?, Said an old lady from UC Gardezpur, Shujabad. Neither the rate nor the annual raise is fixed. Sometimes the landlords tells different price for a mound and while paying it back after a week or so he might say I got the less price from the market, will therefore pay you less. Wages depend on how much the farmer gets ahead. Last year I received Rs.160-200/mound.“I am getting Rs.260/mound this year. Next year will come up with new stories. It is off late that cash payment began in the area. Earlier we used to have one twentieth share of the total pick in a day. We then sold it off to the retailers and sometimes used it ourselves”. Cotton Control Ordinance (1966) declares ginning and processing of unclean and contaminated phutti (raw cotton) as a legal offense and every now and then emphasizes on cotton getting contaminated during picking, clearing and transportation hurting our economy and foreign exchange. A similar piece of advice extended by the Agriculture Department also advises pickers to cover their heads tightly with a woolen shawl or duppatta to control their hair fall; to place collected cotton in a dry woolen shawl and clean leaves, twigs, dry bolls very carefully. Raw and dry stalks, threads, wrappers, papers, polypropylene, cigarette ends, jute, straws, dry grass and other pollutants must not be there etcix. Obviously much of that role is played by women, picking cotton. One editorial of the Departmental Agriculture Magazine Zara’atnama claims that “given the fertile soil and suitable environment Pakistan grows one of the best cotton in the world. All it suffers from in the local and European market is the careless picking and unsafe transportation. Hasty and slapdash picking pollutes the produce seriously affecting its quality”. The Department, it argues, runs information and training campaign every year but the success once again depends on the pickers’ sense of picking and cleaning cotton x. Needless to say, all responsibility from all sides – farmers, experts, brokers, ginners, millers, advisors and administrators - of procuring trash-free cotton is placed on the shoulders of poor pickers without assuring fair wages, without training or facilitation and without considering under what circumstances and how they pick cotton. Sophistication in picking cotton is impossible with providing necessary equipment, adequate training

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and sufficient wages. In addition to magnitude, appending quality picking with wages is one of the fundamental prerequisite to put in place. In the four target districts i.e. Multan, Muzzafargarh, Lodhran and Khanewal, I spoke to scores of pickers. Not a single respondent or a group mentioned of receiving any training from any government department, save one or two from local NGO2s in one of the districts. “The art of picking cotton naturally comes to us. We learn it all on our own as we start picking it form very early age,” said Fatima from Muddwala, Alipur3. Save extending a couple of advices, one fails to find public or private measures to assist and shore up pickers condition. It’s the talk of higher yields, better pricing, foreign exchange and national economy you hear from all corners all over the region. Farmer considers cleaning as part of the same day labour within the same wages. He gets the cotton cleaned according to his own standard. In official and business discussions, pickers’ condition and meager wages do not feature in. No woman, save exceptions, can pick 40 Kg or above in a day and clean it too. Cleaning usually takes more time than picking. Individually, 25 to 30 Kg is the maximum amount a woman picks in a day. In all the four districts, only one woman, Manzooran Bibi in Gardezpur (Shujabad), was told to be fast enough to collect and clean around more than 40 kgs in some of her work days. Carrying the bundle on their heads, at times they have to take it to the storage or to the trolleys or trucks parked away from fields.

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Doaba Foundations has extended one training on better picking methods and safety measures of picking cotton to women of the Union Council Bosan, District Multan. Under a project by Oxfam GB. 3 The field work in Muddwala Alipur was facilitated by Muslim Aqeel from Doaba Foundation, Muzzaffargarh and Zahoor Joya from Sojhla for Social Change.

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In August and September it is so hot and suffocating that women have to rush out of fields several times to breathe and take water. Otherwise, they might faint from heat and pesticides fumes. “There is no day off. No Sunday, no Friday, It is all the same for us, except someone is bed stricken. Cotton picking and other agri-tasks continue on and on”. In a land lord’s own words, “Sometimes it is so hot out there that when my worker rings me up to come and note down who picked how much cotton, I refuse to come out. You please note it down yourself, I will pay the wages tomorrow”, said Zawar Hussain, from Chack 77-10R, Khanewal. Case Study Bhiravan Mai4, UC Bosan5, Multan: Engrossed in picking cotton, an old lady in her 60s came out of the fields on our request. Exhausted by picking sine morning, she was badly panting. “I am picking cotton from very young age. She expressed during her interview. I grew up, got married and had children doing the same labour. I have got 8 daughter and 2 sons. My husband is carpenter by caste and by profession. He is very old and makes or repairs cots to earns Rs. 100 or 150 a day or two. None of my child ever went to school. We married two of our daughters with a great difficulty. All other daughters work with me in the fields, including the youngest one who is 10. By the end of the day, all we collect is close to one and half or two mounds of cotton. The landlord pays us Rs. 260 for a mound but always in installments. ‘Yet not sold or I could not get better price from the market,’ he keeps extending excuses. There is no choice. We have to work with him. If I save Rs.10 or 20 someday, I keep it for my daughter’s dowry. Me and my husband remain sick. Fever and non-stop scratching has seized my body for several years. Who cares?”

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Several women refused to take their photographs. Therefore, all women whose case studies are presented here might not be seen in the pictures. 5 The field work and women’s interviews in UC Bosan were facilitated by Nageena Malik from Doaba Foundation, Multan.

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Men and women in an FGD at UC Gardezpur, Shujabad6 told: “Girls are usually not sent to school. Distance becomes a problem .School is far and usually there is no one to accompany or drop them in. Boys take the bicycle off to school but girls can neither drive a bike nor walk long distances alone”. None in a group of 17 women in Gardezpur and only 2 out of 19 women in Muddwala had their education below primary levels. In fact most girls are taken to cotton picking and other field activities from a very age. They do pick a couple of Kilos to support us”, say the mother of young girls. Young girls mix up their pick with their mother’s. A girl starts picking cotton almost regularly from age 10. “Their share of labour is saved for their dowry”, most mothers state

Case Study: Noor Mai of Chack 53 M, Lodhran: I have got two daughters and one son. One of the daughters is married and the other one, aging 13, works with me in the fields. My husband died of cancer several years ago. My son, she pointed her finger to a young man who was standing besides us, remains sick and cannot work. All he can do is herding farmers’ livestock against very low wages. Me and my daughter pick and clean no more than 15 to 20 Kgs a day in return of Rs.150 or even less. It barely works for a daylong ration for a day.

“Cotton pickers, said Amir Hamza (Deputy Directory, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council) in a seminar7, rush in the morning to collect wet cotton just to raise its’ weight and have more money but spoils the quality of cotton that goes darkening later”. Women, when I spoke later, completely disagreed. We don’t have a choice. It is the farmers who let us know what time to start picking. We never decide on our own. Secondly, it takes almost whole day in cleaning before it is weighed. On top of that visiting fields early morning is difficult because we have to make breakfast or do some
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Focus Group Discussion and individual interviews in Gardezpur, Shujabad were facilitated by Nageena Malik, Doaba Foundation, Multan. 7 Under an Oxfam supported project, the seminar was organized by Doaba Foundation to highlight the issues and problems faced by cotton picking women as part of their project to improve the conditions of cotton picking women. The seminar and interactions with the respective officials was facilitated by Mahar Zeshan from Doaba Foundation, Multan.

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household work before proceeding to fields. Sometimes, if we do, it is the landlord who would like us to start picking early in the morning. He would even like us not to have our breakfast and do the job first”. Anyway the pickers themselves cannot decide which day and what time to pick cotton. Picking wet cotton is quite difficult and takes more time than drier one. “The biggest negligence, the Deputy Director alleged, is committed by picking women, so that they can have 50Kg in place of 40Kg. If pickers do their job honestly, they can have a fair price for their labour”. “The pickers should stop being dishonest”, was his point. “When you do your job honestly, God will save you from bigger losses. Do not run for picking as if cash is grown out there. Do not try picking only the better flowers, skipping the bad ones and leaving trouble for others. Never mix the rotten flower with the fresh ones. Having a worm in it, it might spoil rest of the cotton. You need to wear new clothes to pick cotton as the old one are contaminated with poison. You sleep with the same clothes and go back picking in the same suit. Wash your clothes in yoghurt. It will clean the poison. Always pick cotton cleanly, without a sangli (boll), patri (leaves), kackh-kana (trash) or twigs. Only then you can get the better wages. You know all this but your minds while picking are somewhere else. The wet cotton, you need to know, gets heated and yellowish, lowering down its value. Think of the millers, think of the country’s economy. If you still have any problem, please consult me”, he said while addressing the poor cotton pickers. The man spoke for almost an hour without uttering a single word about the potential risk to pickers’ health, enhancing wages or putting up precautionary measures for pickers’ safety. They only thing in their favour he spoke was of not to pick wet cotton because it smears poison on pickers body and causes skin irritations.

Oblivious of women’s poverty and vulnerability, Dr. Zahid Mahmood (Zakrya University’s head of Agriculture Engineering Department) extended similar advises to women regarding how to pick cotton effectively and efficiently. Official experts and analysts, as it is vivid from the above made comments and statements, fail to understand that quality picking is impossible without fare wages, training and provision of safety kits to the pickers. An effort to understand the socio-economic condition of cotton pickers is totally missing.
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In response to ‘how and what time do you start picking, women told me: “The landlord gets it announced in the mosque or conveys message that such and such landlord’s cotton shall be picked tomorrow. Come for collection in such and such fields at this or that time and we approach the place accordingly.” Usually, the time and number of pickers remains flexible because each picker gets paid against whatever amount she ends up picking and cleaning up in a day.” “We have got, women told later, very limited number of dresses. Given our excessive engagement, it is impossible to wash or wear new suit every day. By the end of season, dry plants rough up our shawls and dupattas wasting several or costing us time to repair. In summer women usually start working earlier and get back by midday while in winters they start late and get back late. It is clear that picking time or type is not a choice for them. The employer, landlord or farmer, decides it himself.

Case Study: Faizan Mai, Chack 53 M, UC Sagwan, Lodhran: Swarmed by dusty bugs, whom she termed cotton lice and sprawled in a dry course of water, a picker told us her story as under: “My name is Faizan Mai. I come from a very poor Baluch family. I have got two sons and two daughters, all married in poor families. My husband never worked regularly but then he met an accident on a motorbike and lost one of his legs. Stuck up to the cot, he lived for 20 years and died in pain. Two of my married sons are wage labourers and hardly earn enough to make the two ends meet. They spare nothing to support me too. After picking cotton, I usually buy a goat and sell it before Eid-ul-Azha. With that money, I try buying wheat in bulk to secure my food for the year. She is my daughter, pointing to a pregnant woman cleaning cotton with her, she said, and works with me”.

In response to women’s intensive engagement in agriculture task, a small farmer, Saqlain Khokhar from Shujabad, said, “God has blessed men’s income, whatever a
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women earns can never fulfill household needs”. Interestingly, a picking woman Zareena Bibi in Mudwala gave exactly an opposite remarks a couple of days earlier. “Women’s income is blessed. One does so many things in a small amount of money. She can buy more in less. Comparing, there is no baraka (blessings) in men’s income. It come and goes off”. Coincidentally, her husband sitting within the group snubbed her saying. “This is untrue. Actually, women are frugal in spending their own income and generous with their husband’s proceed.” Sitting on a parchoon shop, a very poor landless labourer, Rabnawaz Sial, whose wife and daughters also picked cotton, expressed his poverty in the following words: “What of meet, we can hardly find a goat’s intestines to eat. It is the Lord’s own scheme of work, little known to earthly creatures. Man is helpless against his will. There are those who are still sleeping till this moment (it was midday by then) and need not to bother about their livelihood. On the other hand, there are those who are wrenching their bodies in this sizzling heat. After a soul-snatching daylong labour, all they get is one day’s ataa to survive on. There are days we literally go hungry. But crying does not serve you food. You have to put men as well as women to work”.

Cotton Picking and Extended Agri-tasks:
Women’s labour does not end with the end of a season. Once the harvest is over, land is prepared either for wheat, rice or for the next cotton crop. What men do is to plough, water and spray, rest of everything is done by women. Sowing seeds, locally known as chhopa, is a back breaking task of carefully dropping seeds in seedbeds. For seedling, wages are paid differently from cotton. One acre is contracted out to a group or family against Rs.1000 only. Likewise chhidrai (thinning) of wheat, cotton and paddy plants is also done by women through a similar contractual arrangement. Hoeing (rambi), and weeding is done by the same women in a similar manner. Fertilizing, on the other hand is done in return of Rs. 200 per sack. Only Rs.800 per bigha (0.33 acre) is paid for harvesting cotton. Sometimes one mound of wheat is given in return of year long labour in one bigha of wheat field. Some studies suggest that 25% to 30% of women’s time is consumed in rice and cotton fields. Put other activities together, agri-labour accounts for 40% to 50% of their labour. With respect to major crops, women make 18% contribution in wheat, 23% in sugarcane, 25% in cotton, 26% in vegetable and 30% in rice including thinning,
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threshing, manuring, clearing, husking, chaffing, clearing, storing activities in addition to caring of livestock which takes no less than a quarter of their timexi.

Bargaining Vulnerabilities:
‘Women freely operate in the labour market of picking cotton,’ is no more than rattling a tin drum. Some of the landlords complain that finding right labour at right time is difficult because, pickers are high in demand during the season and keep putting off work. The reality flies back in the face of all such claims. Women’s free mobility is extremely limited. Collecting fuel-wood and fodder, intertwined with picking, compels them stick to the limited fields of specific landlords. Cotton pickers, in-fact hold little freedom to pick and choose and possess almost no bargaining power. In case they prefer one farmer over another, if at all, maximum benefit they find is no more than Rs.15 or 20 after 40 Kg. Away from their homestead, no landlord offers them food or shelter. Most pickers, therefore, prefer working close to their households. They have to come back, anyway, to prepare food for themselves and members of their family by the midday or get back early in the evening. At times, they get back home having done their daylong job if a woman or two are staying back home to take care of kids and prepare meals. Mostly they work with landlords or farmers in the vicinity. If they deny working with nearby landlords, they would not allow them collecting fuel-wood or fodder from their fields. In last round of picking, women receive 4th, 6th or 8th portion of their pick depending on the remaining amount, quality or thickness of the crop. This incentive bids them further to work in same fields all the year round. Normally, it is thinly spread low quality of cotton at the end and sells very cheap in market. It is up to women then, whether they keep it for domestic use or cell it off to a retailer. Even this practice is not very common. Farmers, more or less, prefer to sell even the last bunch of their cotton flowers. Secondly, they work in a farmer’s field with their men’s permission or at least consent. Most women work in family groups and do not decide individually. Refusing for one task or insisting for particular amount of wages for cotton may lose a whole chain of labour they receive from a landlord. Never defined as slave or bonded labour in classical sense of the term but the arrangement is no less confining. Gender, legitimized norms of parda and patriarchal control, household responsibilities, caring for kids, unavailability of food and water in the fields and family obligations make them vulnerable to compromise on whatever wages offered by the landlord.
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Farmers keep giving wages almost daily or on alternative days in the start but as the picking season draws to close they keep putting off payment. Actually, it is farmers’ tactic to manipulate pickers for continuous work with them till all their cotton is picked. This holds them back to pick for someone else even if he offers better wages. Ending season, they keep back wages to get women back to work with them even if the chances of shifting fields are quite limited. Sometimes, the landlords hold back the piece of cloth women collect in cotton to get them back to work in their fields. More the number of women, happier the landlord is. Each woman then hardly collects 5 or 10 Kg of cotton and his job is done in no time. Usually, they walk down to fields and get back on their own. Maximum, what a landlord does is to load them to and from the village in a tractor trolley. Come November-December, some landlords reduce Rs.100/mound on average. It is easier to pick in winter than summer, they argue. To pickers, it is equally tough picking in cold as in heat. Their hands and feet go freezing inside fields while picking cotton. The share of their last pick or otherwise, women sell small amounts of cotton to retailers, more than often a parchoon firosh in the village. Selling the stuff in a small quantity always gets very low price from the market. Pickers, whatsoever, have no idea, what its rate is in the market. All they know is what they get from a landlord or a retailer against a kilo. “We then, says Muhammad Rashid a Parchoon firosh of Chack 53M, Lodhran8, assess the quality and wetness of cotton before offering rate to pickers. Normally, we offer Rs.5 to Rs.10 less than the market rate. Cross checking it in the market, I came to know that they offer Rs.20-25 less against a Kg than the open market. Sometimes young children also bring cotton in small quantities to retailers in the village. Obviously, they have no idea about the rate and accept whatever is offered. Sometimes, if a small landlord’s family needs cash for ration, they too bring a kilo or two during the season.

Clever Calculations to Rob off the Picker’s Labour:
Not on her own name but a woman’s wage, to be paid later, is written on her husband or father’s name. The picker in turn receives a parchi (chit) to claim her wages back. However, the uneducated women cannot make sense of the parchi as such. They try
8

My interactions and opportunity to talk with the farmers of Lodhran was facilitated by Maalik Ashtar from Damaan Development Foundation, Multan.

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remembering their credit by heart. As day to day quantity of their pick varies, hence, the chances of laps or miscalculation are common. In case of mughalta (miscalculation or misunderstanding), it is pickers who mainly suffer. Landlords, complain most pickers, weigh 2 to 4 Kg less against each 40 Kg. “We are ignorant, cannot read or write, how we can read scales accurately? “It is to keep an account of trash and weight of the cloth the cotton is weighed in”, landlords justify the practice. “It is complete dishonesty, one of the dealers commented, when I shared the practice with him. Keeping cloth’s weight into account, ‘1’ Kg kaat (deduction) is standard. Anything above that is all to steal poor women’s hard work”. One of the small farmers, Ghulam Yaseen from UC Bosan, himself confessed of deducting 3 to 4 kg against each 40 Kg”. But, I do not do it anymore”, he said. It was the change of heart sometimes ago and I stopped doing it. Now I deduct ‘1’ Kg only against each 40 kg, which is a norm. However several other landlords in the area, whom I personally know, do it”. Illiterate women cannot get the tricks played by the dealers or farmers. Even if they do, “it is to keep an account of the trash”, they assert. Most growers and dealers deny willful under-scaling other than standardized kaat. “One or another woman takes note of the scale”, they stress. Collected by women flower by flower, business in big markets moves in millions of tons. Cotton bales are thrown here and there in exchange of hundreds of thousands of rupees. Except labourers, every player at each step earns profit. Bigger the investment, bigger the profits, so simple is that. In ghalla mandi9 (main market), arhatis (dealers) pay Rs.11/mound as loading charges to labourers. (It was Rs. 7/mound in his note book that I happened to see later). Rs. 0.40/mound and Rs.0.10/mound is paid to the Town Committee in the head of Zila Tax. Rs 0.75/mound is charged to farmers and Rs. 1.0/mound to the Selectors – factory’s purchasing agents who come down buying cotton from mandi. The auctioneer charges us Rs.1.0/mound for voicing the price and cutting a deal. On top of that, we pay annual income tax to the government. Risking the investment sometimes we purchase stock from farmers and at other times we hold it to pay back once it is sold out”, explain Nazeer Dogar at his arhat. On the other hand, dealing in 10,000 to 15,000 mounds a day, a dealer in fact earns Rs. 20,000 to Rs.30,000/day. When I discussed the issue of oppressive employment and lower wages of pickers with one of the growers, Rao Shabeer in Lodhran, he said: “Let’s say market price is
9

In Ghalla mandi Lodhran, I interviewed several dealers.

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Rs.2000/mound. I pay Rs.300 to the pickers. Rs.20 to 30 Rupees transportation charges against each mound. Rs. 100/mound is lost against sikri (trash) in the market. A couple of 10s are paid to arhati against each 40 Kg just to hold for a couple days and deal in my produce. Taking away exorbitantly higher inputs cost what do I save hardly Rs.15001600/mound? How can I pay more to a picker?” “There is no exploitation, he added, but market does not provide a cushion to increase wages. Multiple pressures compel farmer to keep the pickers wages whatever maximum possible”. “Day to day rate keeps fluctuating and heavy risks keep impending around,” assert dealers10 and growers. “When we get a better rate from the market, we pay better wages to pickers”, says a middle level farmer Ghulam Shabbir from Khanewal. For instance, the price last year approached to Rs.4000/mound and we gave Rs. 300 or above to the pickers. This year the rate is stagnant around Rs.2000-2500/mound. So the pickers’ charges are also low, he argued.” Generally, farmers’ statements do not corroborate with one another. Women are told of receiving better wages i.e. (Rs.250 to 300/40 Kg) this year than the previous one i.e. (Rs.150 to 200/40 kg) due to price hike in general. Last year, as acknowledged by farmers themselves, price shot up to Rs. 4000/mound. But women were paid even less wags than they receive this year. Very few women told of receiving Rs. 300 i.e. marginally higher wages this year. Probably, it addresses the general price hike but once again does correspond to cotton’s rate in the market. The truth is that whether big or small, all farmers, all dealers, all factory selectors, remain abreast with the latest rate and sell or purchase the stock at the best possible point in time to gain maximize profit or potential benefit. All of them operate as active and rational marketing agents – as argued by classical economic theories. Picking women are devoid of social or economic choice and do not possess any powers and have no market information to argue over to secure their wages. Keeping other factors constant, the pickers wages are stagnant. They receive a bare minimum amount just for their survival. The worth of their labour is rarely valued. On the other count parchoon firosh (retailers) who purchase phutti kilo by kilo from pickers, sometimes collect as higher an amount as 2 to 3 mounds in a day. Usually, they pay Rs.20-25 to the sellers there comparing the market rate. They justify underpayment against the transportation and storage charges or poor quality and mixing of all varieties together. In most cases the dealers or selectors come to collect the stocks from them at almost double the price they pay to the pickers.
10

Rao tassuwar, Sarfraza Ali and Chaudhary Nazeer Dogar of Ghalla Mandi, Lodhran.

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Putting it best in apickers’ words from Gardezpur, Shujabad: “It is a chain of dishonestly, exploitation and underpayment. Landlord cheats picker. He is cheated by the arhati. Arhti is exploited by Selectors and Selector by the millers and millers by the government or others. So on and so forth. This is how the business of phutti runs around”.

Picking Cotton in Poisonous Fields:
Contrary to some earlier studies or general perception11, I could not find a woman totally ignorant of the poisonous and harmful effects of picking cotton. It is common sense, if something kills living organisms; it is surely harmful for human beings too. Though not with a scientific sense of cause-and-effect relationship but all my respondents were well aware of the detrimental effects of pesticides. Except a few all of them mentioned multiple health problems generated from picking cotton, during of after the season. Nevertheless, their knowledge about its intensity or severity was limited. Comparatively, men’s were more sensitive about the poisonous effects of pesticides than women. Men or women’s total ignorance from pesticides harmfulness seems implausible when they themselves keep witnessing extreme cases here and there across several villages of the town. Two of the recent incidences of committing suicide by inhaling pesticides were quoted in my research area: Fed-up of a family squabble revolving around her marriage, Zewar Bibi, about 30, committed suicide in Basti Muddwala (Alipur) last year. By drinking the small quantity, left-back in a cane and timely taken to hospital, she somehow survived. In the second case, as told by Hajran Mai from Gardezpur, Shujabad, a young girl12 about 20, drank pest-killer in protest to her forced betrothal with her cousin. At the time of my research,13 she was in hospital but expired within a week14. In a discussion, village group said, “now we keep pesticides canes and residue away from house and bury the left over poison in earth. Young boys and girls attempt to inhale it on minor disputes. It is essential to keep pesticides away from the approach of other family members. ”

11 12

Say Jabar and Mohsin 1992 and couple of others indicated in the footnotes. Her name was not disclosed by the respondents. 13 Early September 2012. 14 In both of the cases the details were not told because it is assumed to be dishonoring for the family and the local community.

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Conversely, community’s attitude towards the risks of picking cotton in the fields drenched with poison is quite casual. “If a worm bites or insect stings, we do not rush back home fearing our phutti might be stolen or mixed with someone else’s. Getting back home in the evening, we apply oil and salt on it. Take lemon shake, if we feel too low and sometimes lassi (a kind of milky drink),” told women in FGD at Shujabad. “Fever and body ache is common. Malaria also attacks from time to time. A volley of cough begins, if the field is freshly sprayed or it is too hot and suffocating in the fields. We go to see the doctor, only if we feel it is going to be over, otherwise. Doctors usually recommend glucose, costing us more than we earn. Getting to the town is also problematic,” said Azmat bibi and others from Basti Kheran, Shujabad.” Except skin rashes, cough or headaches, men too were unaware of the dangerous effects like reproductive complications, breast cancer, blindness and chronic ulcers etc. Case Study: Shamshad Bibi, Basti Kirtwahna, Moza Dhunddi, Shujabad: She just came out of cotton fields. Badly sweating and trying catching up her breath, a woman from Basti Kirtwahana (Shujabad), spoke to us. “My name is Shamshad. I am around 35 36. I am married and have got two sons and one daughter. We are extremely poor. My elder daughter is 12 and two sons are 10 and 7. My husband is a casual labourer and makes no more than Rs.5000 a month. It is impossible to run a house such a meager amount of money. Hence, my daughter picks cotton with me. I cannot think of sending my kids to school when it is so hard to seek two times meal a day?” With tears rolling on her cheeks, she informed us about another serious problem. “I am afflicted with kala yarqan (black jaundice or hepatitis C) for last several years. Fighting with it, I still have to work in fields. I have visited several hospitals but no vain. It is getting incurable now. Doctors, ask me to go for its’ proper treatment which might cost me more than one hundred thousand rupees, as I was told. How can I imagine having such a big amount?. I have heard, its’ vaccine is terribly expensive. Precisely, the life is in trouble”.

Cotton fields drenched in pesticides cause serious health hazards to picking women. Intensive work and exposure to toxic chemicals renders them vulnerable to chronic headaches, nausea, sickness, respiratory contractions and skin irritations. Bruises and broken skin augments the likelihood of pesticides transfusion into the pickers’ blood. None of them adopts any precautionary measures. Most of them are not familiar to safety measures, equipment or any such thing. Increased frequency of late sprays,
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though ineffective for crops as diagnosed by experts, is on the rise and causes serious harm to the pickers health. One of the doctors was not comfortable in talking about the issue. “How could I know, who is affected by pesticides and who is not? Dozens of village women visit me every day and number of them with similar signs too. It is difficult to attribute a symptom caused by pesticides. And off course, I am not sure which woman picks cotton and which not?” Anila Siddiqui, a lady doctor15 on Bosan Road Multan stated: “Most cotton picking women have got skin allergies, severe headaches, vomiting and are chronically anemic. I receive three to four patients daily Who are affected by poisonous cotton one way or the other. They want immediate relief and do not go for regular treatment, that it demands”. Stinging and biting of insects even snakes is frequently reported. Once falling ill, visiting a hospital or clinic in town is difficult without a man’s permission. Accompanying of a male relative is must, even if he is younger and dependent on the woman he is accompanying. For a single woman travelling alone is no less than a challenge. “We cannot judge a snake bite till the spot gets swells abnormally. Usually, we ignore small rashes” Women told in FGDs in Alipur and Shujabad.

15

The interview with the Lady Doctor was conducted by Sameena Jaffry from Sojhla for Social Change, Multan

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Case Study: Bukhsh Bibi, Basti Kehtarvana, UC Gardezpur, Shujabad: Surprised by seeing a big black mark of injury or whatever on her hand, I16 asked spontaneously what happened here? “It is the snake bite, she said”. Asking details she told: “My name is Bux Bibi. My age is about 40 but am never married. Actually I was betrothed to my father’s sister’s son and my brother to her daughter. Getting married my brother and his wife could not pull along well and quickly their relations went sour. She believed it is all my brother and our family’s fault. In revenge, my aunt did his son’s nikah with me but never had a rukhusti. I left my parents home and now live at my sisters’. I am poor and so is my sister. We pick cotton in fields. Normally, I collect 20 to 25 Kg cotton in a day in return of Rs.100 or 150. Last year, when I was collecting cotton, I got a scratch on my hand with a drop of blood. Ignoring it as a usual matter, I kept working and got back home finishing the day long labour. Just in a single night my hand turnred into a bludgeon and began hurting unbearably. I managed visiting a clinic on main road Shujabad, next day. ‘It appears to be a snake bite,’ the Doctor said, and referred me to the hospital. Doctors over there confirmed it to be the snake bite, though of a less poisonous snake. I could die had I been further late. Fortunately, I survived with some treatment. But I still have to collect cotton to earn my living. However, I have just begun a parchoon shop at my house and plan to stop picking cotton once this business picks up”.

No eminent studies have been conducted, especially to assess the toxic residues of pesticides in picker’s body. One of the rare studies examines 74% of cotton pickers as moderately poisoned by pesticides. Toxic content in the rest is also measured to be appallingly higher that might cause death. One of the studies carried out by Dr. Karin Astrid in South Punjab (2006) observes the amount of pesticides immediately after the harvest exceeding the minimum acceptable level of poisonous residue. Only 10% of the subjects were found in the normal range. Broadly 2 to 5 million people are directly or indirectly affected by pesticides in Pakistan. Approximately, 1 million persons are hospitalized, 37000 are afflicted by cancer and 20,000 die with similar symptoms every year. Women picking and cleaning cotton and handling the fodder and fuel-wood remain at the increased risk of problematic pregnancies and breast cancer. 77% of cotton growers, according to her assessment, had some orientation of pesticides’ health

16

The interview was mainly conducted by Samina Jaffery from Sojhla for Social Change, Multan.

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hazards while 17% had some knowledge of its harmful effects and only 8% failed to associate any problems with itxii. More specifically (as studied by Garcia 2003, Jack 2003 and Javaid et al 2006 and indicated in Qamar and Hussain et al 2008) the pesticides poison cause erythrocyte cholinesterase and lowered plasma cholinesterase of severe or moderate intensity. Five years consecutive exposure to pesticides in whatever form takes its intensity to the dangerous level. Cough, itching, urticaria, deramal blisters, vertigo, respiratory disorder, sneezing, rhinitis, dizziness and muscular pain are common symptoms observed in women in picking season. Chronic fungal and corneal ulcers, particularly among picking women, are also reported. Perforation or thinning of cornea, if not properly treated, leads to eyeball-collapsing, blindness and/or corneal opacities. According to World Health Organization (2004?), “Long-term exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of developmental and reproductive disorders, immune-system disruption, endocrine disruption, impaired nervous-system function, and development of certain cancers. Children are at higher risk from exposure than are adultsxiii”. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 2001) that estimated from a sample of 5127 thousand tons of cotton picked by 2.7 million women in 9 cotton districts of Punjab that 87% of cotton picking women experience sickness during or after the picking season, losing the country’s Rs.105 million on treatment and the work valued as Rs. 660 millionxiv.

Growers and Dealers attitude towards Pickers:
Men’s and largely the employer’s attitude towards women’s exposure to pesticides and other risks is of easy going and carefree. “The labour class does not bother minor injuries or bruises. Although they do get hurt in this process but they don’t care and get well again”, the landlord Saqlain Khokar justified the problem. “While picking cotton the small cuts or skin irritations, they receive heal up soon quite naturally. These nzakitain (over careful attitude) suit urban madams only,” he explained further. Growers, ginners, dealers all sound to be highly concerned to their respective profit and loss. None of them places any significance at the women’s fundamental role in picking and cleaning cotton. All they speak about pickers, is a few words of sympathy, if at all
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and that’s it. Actually all players in this chain of business point each other of earning huge sums of profit. Less and more, of course, all of them earn profits every year. Their obsession with Bt itself demonstrates non-stop profiteering greed. it is only the pickers who fall at the lowest ebb of this soiled business. The fact is, profiteering business of growing, ginning, manufacturing and trading stands on the feeble shoulders of picking women. In response to my question about the problems faced by pickers, almost all involved in the chain express their sympathy with the pickers. But in reality, it is no more than lip service. Be they retailers or dealers, they themselves are farmers too, which they do not readily declare. They have got their own lands as well as well as leases and exclusively grow cotton. Whenever you talk to them, their final sympathies fall with farmers, not with the pickers. To sum up, Cotton picking as well as other agriculture roles are highly gendered. Farmers, sprayers, pesticides sellers and brokers all are exclusively men. Likewise cotton and textile (C&T) industry is predominantly possessed by men. Women and girls are allowed rather compelled by their economic circumstances to work openly in fields. On contrary, they are not free to attend school at a distance, visit market or see the doctor even in emergency without permission from male relatives. Class norms also determine their helplessness. Wives and daughters of landlords and better off farmers are rarely seen in fields. Poor women, however take care of every task except a few specified for men as skilled activities. Number of women engaged in informal agriculture tasks is far more than men. To keep them underpaid, their role is perhaps deliberately defined as ‘informal’ by all actors involved in agriculture, mainly, cotton growwes and dealers.

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Labour Laws & Cotton Pickers:
Each player in the extended business of processing cotton is almost convinced that things are just fine with pickers. “Determining working hours and minimum wage for cotton pickers is impossible in free labour market”, argue most of the farmers and dealers. “She can pick any amount of cotton in any number of hours to multiply her wages. If we fix a minimum wage, she will have to work for X number of hours and collect Y amount of cotton for a day, which is obviously difficult in case of cotton,” is another argument that I frequently heard from dealers and those hiring pickers. On the ground, I observed women picking and cleaning cotton for several hours in a day. If we consider person days of small girls accompanying their mothers, it normally exceeds a day long labour in the formal labour sector. Piece rate arrangement without any governmental or unionized mediation is a total business of exploitation. Women respondents simply have no idea of labour laws or minimum wages. All they know, what they get against X amount of cotton picked in a day. Very limited initiatives from the Government, Labour Unions, NGOs or any other independent bodies have been taken to improve the conditions of cotton pickers in Pakistan. Labour laws are already failing informal sector and cotton picking is one f the most neglected and under-addressed sector with respect to labour laws. National Textile Leather Garments and General Workers Federation (PNTLGWG) did make some efforts to organize cotton pickers and other seasonal workers but without a notable success. Even Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), a well known think tank for labourer rights, could not succeed in sufficiently highlighting their problems, although it does speak of textile workers, their issues and rights from time to timexv.

Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations:
Cotton fiber is highly admired all over the world. International market and consumers demand indicate its likeness and acceptability graph constantly picking up. Cotton is supposed to be the best fabric in fashionable and affluent circles of society here and abroad. But who cares that it is the pickers sweat and blood imparting lime and luster to versatile cotton uppers, aprons, shirts and trousers. Amidst the booming industry of C
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& T all these years, little has changed in favour of cotton pickers. Society’s and state’s conscience, in this regard, needs to be shaken to take legal, technical, ethical, social, economic and health measures to assist women who pick cotton in chilling hot and cold weather. The problems of exploiting cotton picking women does not confine to enhancing women’s wages alone, which is obviously a must, but minimizing pesticides and respecting nature is also important at the same time. Increasing women’s wages as well taking necessary measures for their health are simultaneously important to be adopted. Therefore, I recommend multiple measures intertwined with each other. Without addressing the problems in every sphere cotton productions and sale, pickers’ exploitation cannot be put to end:  Ethically, responsible, cautious and reasonable ecological control of pests, sensitive management of nature in place of fierce and brutal interference with nature is required. To maintain ecological equilibrium, a middle way to manage pests, seek growth as well as preserve nature is required. Nature herself, if observed and emulated in intelligent manner, can resolve several of its problems. In Carson’s words, I would like to recommend: “We need a more high-minded orientation and a deeper insight, which I miss in many researchers. Life is a miracle beyond our comprehensions, and we should reverence it...The resort to weapons such as insecticides to control it is a proof of insufficient knowledge”.  Reversing the trends of degrading nature and augmenting poverty is not possible without nature and human friendly methods of agriculture. Cotton picking women as well as farmers knowledge about pests, crop management and multi-cropping also needs to be enhanced. Increased attention to livestock and food crops need to be paid where women are already extensively engaged and their labour and wages need to be formalized. Less harmful, local and imported techniques, of higher yields are out there to be practiced. Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) and National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) could be empowered and resources should be allocated by the government for the purpose. Radical policy and practice reforms to improve the condition of women and environment are need of the time.  Largely, the Government has failed to comprehend the underlying relationship between the pickers’ poverty, environment and agriculture, pushing things to the verge of disaster in cotton growing and other agriculture spheres. Reversing
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the trends of degrading nature and mounting poverty is not possible without nature and human friendly methods of agriculture. Farmers knowledge about pest and crop management and multi-cropping also needs to be enhanced. Increased attention to livestock and food crops need to be paid. Less harmful techniques of higher yields are out there or be innovated to be practiced. Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) and National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) could be empowered and resource be allocated for the purpose. Sustained use of resources must be a priority along with higher productions and fair wages to the labourers – women cotton pickers in this case.  Effective implementation of Agriculture Pesticides Ordinance and Rules formulated in 1971 & 1973 is essential to stop farmers and corporates from frequent violation with impunity. Food and Agriculture Regulation, adopted in 1965, essentially need to be amended to address pesticides residues as well as incorporate safety measures for pickers. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAOs) International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides discouraging agro-chemicals and promoting integrated pest management, and National Environment Policy Measures (2005) need to be widely disseminated and practiced. Conscious of its effects to the cotton pickers, it does indicate essential measures to protect the pickers.  Besides that, Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), involving a broad range of pre- and post-harvest management practices developed by Pakistani experts should also be extended to the farmers. It must bind farmers and employers to ensure the safety of the cotton picking women. BMPs and ICMs systems having proven success in particular temperature and environments should be transmitted to the big, medium and small farmers. They might help improving the socio-economic conditions of farmers and pickers. Progressive farmers could be engaged for innovative and appropriate BMPs for on-farm adaptive research and practices, safe for everyone.  Improving soil nutrition and assuming advanced nutrient measures, in place of unabated pest sprays, need to be preferred in for higher yield and better cotton produce. Life cycle of major pests and insects could be controlled by better understanding and earth friendly measures.

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 Labour laws, already extended to several other informal sectors, must be extended to the agriculture sector and ensured to be respected by the farmers by the Government of Pakistan. Labour Unions in the agriculture sector must be encouraged particularly for women, engaged in cotton picking as well as other agri tasks. It might take some time but they process might pick up with the passage of time and result in securing fair wages to women.  With ensuing regulations of World Trade Organization (WTO) food and other commodities are being rigorously tested to assess its poison content. Our agri products, including cotton are gradually being rejected or attracting uneconomical prices. Henceforth making our products contamination free, in this sector, needs to be a priority. Besides that where testing goods and commodities is important women and agriculture labourers health is equally important to be examined and adequate treatment extended in case of negative effects.  Especial treatment facilities for directly or indirectly pest affected people, including the cotton picking women need to be adopted if we want to secure health of the present and future generations of the rural women that make almost half the rural population. Periodical examination of women’s health, so long as the menace is eliminated, must be ensured to protect them from chronic contaminations. Provision of safety equipment and precautionary measures must be made a binding for farmers and cotton industry before they hire women for the task.  C & T Industry should contribute in setting up a fund to open contamination testinglaboratories and pesticides affetees’ treatment centers in major cotton producing districts of South Punjab.  With import liberalization in 1995, if Pakistan wants to develop and maintain its cotton export market, protective measures for cotton pickers, especially against the over applications of pests and better wages be adopted as a priori. A relevant decision made by Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to provide certain incentives needs to proactively implemented. It might, in case, stringently applied, result into better wages for cotton pickers. Very simple, it is eventually women who clean and control certain types of contaminations, desired by TCP.

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But once again it is impossible without increasing the wages and improving socio-economic conditions of the pickers.  In 1994, International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) reaffirmed to fulfill and protect women’s rights, expand their economic choices and facilitate their access to education, knowledge and skill development and health services as well as employment. Discriminatory practices, like the one in the field of cotton picking, must be ‘eliminated in third world and other counties’, it emphasizes. Women’s role in national growth and development must be acknowledged by the states it further stresses. The government of Pakistan, the signatory and ratifier of women rights must take active measures to eliminate oppressive practices against women, including the field of cotton growing, picking and cleaning.  Banning Bt cotton, highly attractive to pests, heavily demanding pesticides, unsuitable to our environment, dangerous to general population and pickers health in particular must be considered. The progressive measure is successfully being adopted in certain other developing countries. Small farmers are especially suffering from higher input cost and decreasing yield. Pickers’ health is being destroyed in their race to earn maximum profit.  Civil society organizations, print and electronic media and rights campaigners need to highlights the problems of pesticides and risks to cotton pickers and several other problems associated with Bt cotton. Discouraging farmers to grow Bt should be part of their campaign. This is, nonetheless, not possible without effective state measures and coordinated efforts from NGOs, independent institutions, experts and corporate. Agriculture Extension Department should play its’ role in imparting, training, educating and teaching cotton growers and pickers about precautionary measures, integrated IPM and ICM and how to secure healthy crops without excessive use of pesticides.  Establishing a provincial and national body to measure and maintain internationally recommended Minimum Residue Level as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organizations and other relevant institutions is a must. A regulatory body, comprising on recognized and responsible agri and health professionals be developed to extend or prohibit the import of certain seeds and pesticides.
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 Suggested measures will not only save the health of cotton pickers rather protect the whole food chain from being contaminated.

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End Notes and References: i World Wide Fund for Nature and Economic Conservation Initiative, Pakistan (2008) Better Management Practices for Cotton and Sugarcane, Crop Management review, Published in 2006 by WWF - Pakistan, Ferozepur Road, Lahore - 54600, Pakistan and Karin Astrid Siegmann (Jan – Feb 2006) Cotton Pickers After the Quota Expiry: Bitter Harvest, SDPI Research and News Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 1, Islamabad: Muhammad Arshad, Anjum Suhail, M. Asghar, M. Tayyib and Faisal Hafeez (2007) Factors Influencing the Adoption of Bt Cotton in the Punjab, Pakistan, Journal Of Agriculture & Social Sciences 1813– 2235/2007/03–4–121–124, Department of Agriculture Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Pakistan. ii Health Hazards, Environmental Effects and Externalities of Pesticide Use in Pakistan, See: http://www.pakissan.com/english/issues/health.hazards.environmental.effects.shtml, iii iv

Qamar-ul-Haque and Hussain R. et all (2008) Orientation Of Cotton Growers Of Multan District About Health Hazards And Pesticide Use: Pakistan Journal of Agriculture Science, Vol. 45(4) v Karin, A.S. 2007. SDPI, Weakest Link in the Textile Chain Cotton Pickers’ Pesticides Exposure, Cotton Pickers Pesticides Exposures, Pakistan. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Yaakov Garb, Science, Technology, and Society, MIT, Methodologies of Environmental Analysis: Yaakov Garb 2002: vi vii

Health hazards, environmental effects and externalities of pesticides use (2012), See:

http://www.pakissan.com/english/issues/health.hazards.environmental.effects.shtml viii Dr. Tahir Anwar (2008) Pesticides Residues in Water, Soil, Fruits and Vegetables in Cotton Growing Areas of Sindh and Lower Punjab, Department of Zology, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Department of Agriculture (2012) Kapas ki saaf chunai, zakheer or tarseel, Government of Punjab, Pakistan. ix x xi

Zaratnama (August 15, 2012), Directorate of Agriculture, Lahore, Punjab.

Muhammad Luqman1, Niaz Hussain Malik And Ahmad Saeed Khan (2006) Rural Women’s Participation in Agricultural and Household Activities, Journal Of Agriculture &Social Sciences, Department of Agricultural Extension, Education and Continuing Education, See: http://www.fspublishers.org, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, xii Karin Astrid Siegmann (Op cit)

xiii

World Health Organizations (2004?) Toxic Hazards, See: http://www.who.int/heli/risks/toxics/chemicals/en/index.html xiv National Agriculture Research Council (2004?) See: http://agrihunt.com/pesticide-industry/1279-health-hazardsenvironmental-effects-and-externalities-of-pesticide-use-in-pakistan.html

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Bibliography:
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