Concept paper Landless women in District Umerkot Introduction:

Concept paper

Landless women in District Umerkot

Introduction:

                       Sindh is located on the western corner of South Asia, bordering the Iranian Plateau in the west, the Kithara Mountains to the west and Arabian Sea in the South. In the center is the fertile plain in the Indus River. Total land area of Sindh is 13.45 million acres are cultivates.

In Sindh women play major role in agriculture, livestock production and cottage industry. Women play apart as family labor and never get properly paid, yet her position is never recognized in the society. Minority women face systematic oppression in both public and private sphere in three levels. The society is dominated at all levels be it caste system, culturally male hegemony and family, religious hierarchy and bigotry Divisive environment in the society made living difficult for minority as sub cultures. Majority of women in Sindh suffering from deprivation and unequal opportunity to land ownership which is structural and systemic gender barrier that is both, the cause and effect of women’s marginalization.

Land defines social status and political power in local context, and it structures relationships both within and outside the household. Land is productive assets, it creates wealth and sustain livelihood.  According to household economic survey 2001-02, approximately 10.36 percent of rural population is landless, 32.67 percent own less than one hectare, 0.046 percent owns one or two hectors land, only 0.0309 percent owns 2-3 hectors land  while only 0.0293 percent own five or more hectares of land. This mean that large majority of rural households don’t own land at all or don’t own enough for subsistence. Approximately one percent household own substance and above land holdings. This implies that rural poverty is extremely high in generally in rural area of Pakistan and specially in Sindh where large population of minorities women are engaged in agriculture field for the purpose of their survival.

Sindh has an extremely low rate of land ownership. Part of the reason for this is historical, social policy and development center (SPDC) 2004 report in rural Sindh 61.1 percent women are household are landless.

1.       http://www.dawn.com/news/704169/study-highlights-minority-womens-problems                                2.Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty. Oxford University Press, IFAD 2001.

Landless has detrimental effects on the population of rural Sindh,  aggravating poverty, increasing feelings of helplessness and perhaps most fundamentally contributing to reduced agriculture yields.

The ownership of land believed to be one of the foremost conditions of women’s empowerment. Women don’t generally own land and when they do, they seldom exercise over it in terms of decision making socio-cultural traditional, emotional and legal constraint prevent them from demanding land rights. The constitution of 1973, in its principle of policy section declares that, “steps should be taken to ensure full participation of women in all sphere of life (article 34). Article 38 of the constitutions specially refers to the economic well being of women. While many land reforms bill have been passed but until a single bill has not implemented.

In district Umerkot majority of lowest caste Hindus Kohli, Bheel, meghwar etc works as landless peasant, bonded laborers or servants doing menial jobs. They are suffering and oppressed at the hand of feudal lords. They evicted from the land any time, relocated at distant places and forced to work without due compensation. Peasant women are often molested and targeted by the feudal (Wadera).

Strategic context of project:

                                         The strategies and approaches that will be used to protect and promote land rights are varied and operate at different levels:

• Awareness campaigning about the land law and basic women rights.
• To form District Core Groups, these groups consist of community based organizations, media, lawyer, minorities, youth and government duty bearers. The role of the DCGs will be to carry the advocacy campaigns on women/development issues of the local population at village and Union Council level.
• To expose and oppose the negative effects of development and violation of women rights.
•  For the technical proficiency of women, training workshop would be held throughout district.
•  To play an active role in highlighting the issue of land inequality and hold the public meetings, and encourages women to participate.
•  “Report Violence against Women” in an effective manner. Screenings led to interesting discussions related to a common person’s perception of VAW.
• Adopt a human rights based guiding framework to promote dignity of survivors of violence against women.

Objectives:

               The main objective behind project is to install a coordinate effort to mitigate the misery of landless women of district Umerkot. Strengthen women as rights holders to claim their rights and redefine existing parameters of state and society. To promote a culture of peace, democracy, pluralism and resist the use of culture and religion by state and non state actors to deny women rights. To formed a vibrant and democratic society in which women will become fully empowered and enjoy all equal rights without any discrimination.

Implementation:

                                          Seminars and conference would be organized in throughout the district. Mobility and access to rural women, and encourage them to participate in different awareness seminar and forums. Arranged meeting at different village level and formed a cluster organization for the awareness.