Peasant-Labour Women’s Demands: Land, Food and Decision-Making Power

Press Release | International Day of Rural Women | October 15, 2023

We mark the Rural Women’s Day with grave concern! Though we are now in the 21st Century, and there is high technological development, the world is facing rising hunger, with rural women being at the highest rung of being the most marginalized, suffering from hunger,  hunger wages, and hunger for a piece of land of our own.

Women farmers, though almost all are landless are the backbone of the agriculture economy. Seeds cannot be sown, land cannot be looked after, livestock cannot be cared and bred, harvests cannot be cut without women. In Pakistan, all food crops, especially wheat are harvested by women’s back-breaking labor, almost all cotton is picked by women, and livestock is cared for by women but even after this hard labor, the rural women peasants are the most marginalized in society.

The imperialist world order dictates neoliberalism as a panacea for our misery and enforced poverty, but in fact, it is the base of our pauperization. From colonization to the present day, we the real tillers of land have been forcefully pushed off our lands. Feudal lords retain control of our land, and with the rise of imperialism, more and more corporate hegemony can be seen being imposed on food and agricultural systems.

It is the fossil fuel, profit-greedy production system that has now brought about the climate crisis. But imperialist powers are unwilling to change the unsustainable production and consumption, and we are left to suffer the intense destruction and damage of our land, homes, and livestock. Not only climate crisis, we also suffer the burden of an astronomical national debt which we never took! The austerity measures imposed by the IMF and World Bank are further crippling the food and agricultural production system.

Our government instead of leasing our land for the export of food should stand up to the capitalist nations demanding debt cancellation, ensuring just and equitable land distribution to the peasants, especially women, and ensuring safe and nutrition food for all that is free not only from chemical and genetic pollution but also free from corporate control. In short, we ask for a policy orientation that would fulfill our demands for food sovereignty, climate justice, economic and social justice, and accountability to the people.

Women Demand Food Sovereignty!

Women Demand Just and Equitable Land Distribution!

Women Demand Climate Justice!

Released by: Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT)