Participants of a district-level consultative workshop titled ‘Post-flood land related issues’ have urged the government to address the problems of the underprivileged women who have been granted tracts of State land. The participants of the workshop, which was organised by a local non-governmental organisation, urged the government to especially address the issues of those women whose lands have been forcibly occupied after the flood.
They said that representatives of the civil society have lauded the Sindh government’s bold initiative for distributing pieces of State land, especially among the underprivileged women peasants. It was observed that there is an urgent need for resolving the women peasants’ litigations and their forced evacuation. The participants said that powerful elements are hatching a conspiracy to fail one of the best programmes of the sitting government for empowering the underprivileged landless haris in the rural areas of the province who have been living below the poverty line since decades.
They demanded the government to ensure transparency in the land distribution programme being launched for distributing land among the underprivileged, landless women peasants. Sassui Mumtaz Khakrani, who was allotted four acres in the second phase of the land distribution programme, said that she was extremely delighted when she received the land. “I had never even dreamed about ever having my own land. However, since 14 months I haven’t been able to achieve any agricultural input and have been demanding the high-ups in the provincial government to provide me with agricultural input so I could cultivate crops on my allotted land,” she added.
Aurat Foundation Coordinator Safia Abbasi said that according to the underprivileged women in the district, it is the need of the hour for the government to ensure that the underprivileged women who have been granted pieces of land should receive their allotted lands, to end occupation from their allotted lands and to provide them with legal support. A civil society activist in the district, Zahida Kakepoto, said that the government has launched the best programme to empower the underprivileged landless peasants, but all the efforts of the authorities would prove fruitless if the women’s pressing issues are not addressed.
