Actionaid

Globalization is a force that is affecting all spheres of life including education, labor, economic as well as the agricultural sector in one way or another and among the worst affected are the women workers, farmers and laborers in under developed and developing countries.ActionAid Pakistan being a strong activist organization on the issues of globalization and corporatization was amongst the very few to raise concerns regarding the effects of economic globalization on womens work and empowerment. These issues were highlighted by speakers at a conference on The Effects of Economic Globalization 0n Womens Work and Empowerment organized by ActionAid Pakistan at the World Social Forum on March 28, 2006.

Women workers from bangle industry, garment industry, fisher folk and textile industry participated in the conference and shared their experiences. Ms.Shamima Nasreen a representative of female workers of garment factory from Bangladesh spoke about the problems of female workers in Bangladesh, while Ms.Tahira highlighted the problems of women in fisherfolk.The issue of bonded labor was discussed by Ms.Nobo Kolhi from the Dalit community of Hyderabad. Ms Irfana Jabbar (Bangle Women Workers Association) presented the case of Women workers in Bangle industry in relation to globalization, while Ms.Azra Parveen talked about the issues of women workers in Textile Industry. Dr.Rubina Saigol and Mr.Aftab Alam also spoke on the occasion.

While talking about the problems of female workers in the Fisherfolk community Ms.Tahira said that there was a time when women of Fisherfolk community were living a free and prosperous life. The concept of globalization was not introduced and implemented at that time and these people were living independently, but later these communities came under pressure when many people started visiting these areas. She further said that deep-sea trawlers are the biggest enemies of Fisher-folk as they only catch the fish that is required by them and through the dead fish back in the sea polluting the water and sea life which in turn has bad effects on the livelihood of these communities. The government spends loads of funds on trawlers and other organizations but nothing is spent on the poor and marginalized communities, they are living alongside the river banks but they don have clean water to drink.

Government has started a new scheme under which licenses are issued for the fisheries which is further contributing in marginalizing these communities. Ms.Tahira said that 'They have always suppressed and marginalized us. We are robbed of our rights by the government. They want us to leave our land and our rights but we are strong people and we will continue to fight for the rights of the poor people of fisher-folk". The children of the fisher folk community do not have opportunities and access to schools and education they are deprived of their rights to food, health, medicine and education.

Ms.Nobo Kolhi represented the Dalit community from Hyderabad and shared the experiences of women in bonded labor. She said that there are up to 20 lakh people working under bonded labor, these include Bheel and Kohli (Hindu Communities) as well as Muslims. These people are captured and detained by the land lords. These land lords run their own governments and rule the area on their own terms and conditions. People are forced to live in acute deprivation under the control of the landlords. These landlords have private jails and children and women as well as men are kept in these private jails. The children are underfed and sick but, are not allowed to go to the doctors.

Each landlord owns approximately 700 acre or more land which gives them the monopoly and control over the resources. The right to life and freedom are the very basic human rights and these people are even deprived of these basic rights.

While talking about the problems of female workers in Bangle Industry, Ms.Irfana Jabbar said that the major problem of female workers in the textile industry is that of unequal and discriminatory attitude towards women. The women in textile industry are paid less than the men and are forced to work overtime but not paid accordingly.

Another issue is that the female workers are highly criticized because they go out and work alongside men in these industries. Women do not get registered in various factories and are not provided any additional facilities to which only the permanent or registered employees are entitled.

Ms.Shamima Nasreen from Bangladesh shared the experience of female workers in Garment Industry and pointed out that there are 42000 garment factories in Bangladesh and thousands of women work in these garment factories. Women give more labor then they are paid. The wages are very low and they are almost the same as it was 10 years ago. She said that "we do not require globalization and WTO; we want our rights to be restored and our demands to be fulfilled".

Bangladesh is a very big exporter of garments but the wages of women workers are very low. The rich counties in WTO have suggested that they will allow some products of the poor countries to be exported in their markets openly but they didn allowed the export of garments to their markets which adversely affected the garment factory workers as they also lost their jobs and are facing all sort of problems.

Dr Rubina Saigol concluded the session by saying that it is the duty of the state to provide people with their rights and to protect their rights at all levels, but the government subsidized these industries and brought down its share in the businesses which gave way to poverty. Today everything is being privatized such as education, health, food etc. The things that were the basic rights of the people have been marketized and they are forced to buy theses thing from the markets. This has adverse effects, especially on women all over the world and most of all in patriarchal systems where females are being further marginalized by giving priority to the male members.

She further said that women working in factories are not given permanent jobs these are part time and contract based jobs. Women are not provided any facilities and advantages with these contractual and temporary jobs.

The multinational corporations are playing a dirty game as they do not have any borders for their capital; they invest their capital in countries that offer cheaper labor. The developing counties compete with each other regarding low labor prices in order to capture the employment opportunities.

Women have the right to equal wages as given to men but the rule has not been implicated in Pakistan and women are still paid less. She emphasized that we can not succeed in this struggle alone; "we must come together to bring an end to these discriminatory practices".

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