Karin Astrid Siegmann
karin@sdpi.org
In Pakistan, cotton provides livelihoods to millions of people involved in its cultivation, industrial use and trade. Cotton-picking, although a seasonal activity, represents by far the largest share of employment in the sector -- in three to five waves, from August to February, an estimated two million cotton-pickers harvest the fuel for Pakistan's export engine.
Most of these cotton-pickers are women, despite the fact that acknowledging that women work is seen as a threat to family honour in most parts of Pakistan -- yet another indication of the extent of poverty prevalent in the cotton-growing belt, outlined in detail in an earlier article in this series. Another major reason for the prevalence of women workers is that the men hailing from the cotton-growing belt have more choices in the labour market and migrate for industrial or construction employment to urban areas.
The extreme poverty in which women cotton-pickers live compels them to sell their labour as the only productive asset they possess. The lack of alternative employment opportunities in the rural economy also leads to an oversupply of women labourers during the cotton-harvesting season. Coupled with their poverty, this significantly reduces the bargaining power of women cotton-pickers in negotiations with cotton growers. Moreover, women cotton-pickers are paid by the weight of their harvest. In such a piece-rate system, wages are paid per unit of output rather than per unit of time, as in the case of daily wage labourers.
Traditionally, payment to cotton-pickers used to be in kind. In recent years, however, a vast majority of growers have moved to payment in cash. On the whole, women cotton-pickers' earnings are lower than those of the male agricultural labourers like sprayers and tractor drivers. This gender-based gap is legitimised by the societal perception of men as the household's main breadwinners and women as its supplementary income-earners.
On average, a fast picker can harvest one maund (40 kilograms) of cotton in a day. The cotton-picking rate in Southern Punjab in 1996/97 was reported to be Rs 40 per maund, which increased to Rs 50-80 by 2005/06. This increase contrasts sharply with a 42 per cent increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) between 2000/01 and 2005/06 only. The piece-rate system of payment for cotton harvesting translates into meagre daily earnings. For example, a picker who spends four to five hours in the field and gets Rs 80 for harvesting one maund of cotton would report daily earnings of just Rs 40-60. Additionally, cotton-pickers are unable to verify whether their harvest has been weighed honestly or not. Even if it has not been, they have no forum to register their protest against those in charge of weighing.
Besides poor remuneration for hard work, cotton-pickers are also exposed to serious health hazards. It is estimated that almost 80 per cent of the total pesticides consumed in Pakistan are applied on the cotton crop, so the most significant health risk cotton-pickers face is their chronic exposure to pesticide spray residuals in their working environment. The cuts and skin rashes of cotton-pickers further expose them to the hazards of pesticides. Picking cotton is also common during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which poses additional risks to the health of women labourers and their children.
Also, cotton-pickers and their family members consume water that is contaminated with pesticides. In addition, pesticides enter the food chain because of their exposure to the soil and livestock and to the cotton seeds that are pressed to produce edible oil. Cotton stalks are often used as fuel-wood in cotton-growing areas. Residuals are thus inhaled by cotton-pickers and their communities. Equally hazardous effects of pesticide exposure have been found among farmers as well as non-farmers during research in Southern Punjab. This comes as no surprise as all people living in a village use the same drinking water from wells situated nearby fields.
The necessity of using more and more pesticides due to the resistance developed in pests, as well as the fact that prices of pesticides have dropped considerably since the adoption of an import liberalisation policy in 1995, has increased their consumption considerably in the last few years. During the same period, however, the cotton yield has not increased significantly, thus raising serious questions about the effectiveness of increased pesticide consumption.
As most cotton-pickers are illiterate, they are unaware of the hazards they are exposed to. Moreover, on account of their poverty, they are vulnerable to greater health risks. These factors prevent investment in simple protective measures and make recovery from pesticide-related ailments very costly. The bargaining power of cotton-pickers vis-a-vis their employer is too weak to negotiate for protective gear. The close association between their domestic responsibilities and paid work exposes not only them but also their children, who are attended to while harvesting, to serious health hazards.
The result is chronic pesticide poisoning, with its symptoms ranging from mild headache to skin allergies to cancer of internal organs. One of the few studies conducted in Pakistan on the issue showed chronic pesticide poisoning among cotton-pickers, especially in the post-harvest period. According to the study, blood samples of only 10 per cent of the female cotton-pickers were in the normal range after the harvesting season. In contrast, the blood samples of 42 per cent of female cotton-pickers exceeded the normal range of pesticides after the harvesting season.
Cotton-pickers are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, which is fuelled by the low pay they receive and the health hazards they are exposed to.
The low piece rates they earn do not allow them to use equipment that can protect them from the harmful effects of pesticides: they also believe that protective gear will slow down their speed. With their low earnings they cannot afford a balanced diet, which in turn weakens their immune system and makes them vulnerable to pesticides' hazardous impacts. Once ill, they do not have the means to get proper treatment.
As a first step towards ensuring decent working conditions in the cotton fields, the role of agricultural workers, especially women, as crucial economic stakeholders needs to be acknowledged. Women workers, who represent more than one-third of the agricultural labour force, are not even mentioned separately in the National Agricultural Policy.
As extension services are provided mostly by men, they hardly reach women agricultural workers. In this scenario, existing legislation for the protection of their lives and livelihoods -- such as the 1973 Agricultural Pesticide Rules, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation's International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, and the 2005 National Environment Policy that promotes integrated pest management and discourages the use of agro-chemicals -- needs to be implemented forcefully.
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