UMERKOT, Nov 3: Rights activists and peasant leaders have urged the government to distribute land among peasants after consulting landless families so that deserving people can have a piece of land to call their own and build a permanent abode on it.

They called for a review of past land reforms, demanded the government implement the land reforms bill of 1977 and opposed the move initiated by past governments, which introduced reforms on the basis of political grounds and feudal legislators always benefited from such reforms.

They were speaking at a “Dialogue with employer and key stakeholders: Livelihood challenges to agriculture and brick kiln workers” organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) here on Sunday.

Veteran peasant leader Punhal Sario expressed serious concern over the state of workers in agriculture sector who were facing abject poverty and did not have access to government facilities available to other workers.

He said that at present, it seemed haris were unable to fulfil their needs because of spiralling inflation and changing crop cultivation pattern. Bonded labour had become the worst form of slavery nowadays and the peasant was being forced to shift his house and workplace more often, he said.

Kirshan Sharma of the District Development Organisation Tharparkar said that working relationship between hari and landowner should be safeguarded because any imbalance in the relationship or conflict between the two could have serious impact on the agriculture sector which formed the backbone of the national economy.

He said that suicide cases were on the rise in rural areas and majority of victims belonged to the poor families who could not afford to have three times meals a day and live a better life.

He said the bonded haris released from farms were living in deplorable conditions and government functionaries were not ready to allot them a piece of land where they could build their permanent abode.

Shujauddin Qureshi of PILER said that his organisation specifically focused on protection of farmers’ rights through dialogue between the employer and the employees.

PILER contributed through feedbacks to have the government policy on farm sector improved and had been engaged in studies on various other issues, he said. Comrade Tajoo Bheel, a peasant leader, laid stress on the need to promote rule of law and said that laws related to land were insufficient.

Haris had to move from one place to the other after being displaced by landlords for one or the other reason, he said, adding that in reality, haris did not have a piece of land to call their own and build a permanent abode on it.

Although it was the state’s responsibility to take care of its deserving and needy citizens as per law, the government remained negligent in its duty towards the poor section of society, he said.

Irshad Junejo, Gul Hassan Arisar and Sarwan Malhi of HANDS said that farmers alone could not fight the powerful landlords who kept entire record of harvest with themselves and refused to share it with their peasants in order to keep them as slaves in pathetic conditions.