SANGHAR: Peasants’ rights were discussed at a programme held here on Friday under the auspices of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler). Sindh Bar Council (SBC) member Sain Bakhsh Nizamani presided over the event, where senior lawyers and a select group of civil society activists and representatives of peasants’ organisations expressed their views.

The speakers urged government to register peasants under the relevant sector in order to provide legal cover to their rights.They highlighted the issues being faced by peasants in the absence of legal cover.

There was no mechanism in place to document their services so as to officially recognise their rights, they said, stressing that steps be taken to ensure their rights equal to industrial workers. They not­ed that peasants mostly being uneducated did not have knowledge of their rights under the Tenancy Act and no did they know how to move the Tenancy Tribunal in case of violation of the Act affecting them. Neither were the tribunals working efficiently, they observed.

One of the speakers claimed that such tribunals often passed judgements under the influence of political figures or peasants’ employers.

Most speakers were of the opinion that peasants were largely deprived of their share in crops as mentioned in their tenancy agreement with employers and this often led to disputes.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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