The cotton picking is informal form of labor and not recognised in labor policy and the labor laws does not cover agriculture labor. Women cotton pickers are working in 9 cotton producing districts in Sindh. With respect to crops, women's participation is particularly high in cotton, rice, pulses and vegetables.
A dominant majority of them are women and most are Kolhi and Bheel, minority Hindu Dalits. Rice and cotton cultivation in Sindh and Punjab jointly account for more than one-third of women's annual agricultural activities. The bodies of cotton pickers also have to bear the onslaught of sprays of poisonous pesticides to the crop which cause skin allergies. Most women identified themselves as cotton pickers, and noted that they are getting unequal and low wages.
Women cotton pickers earn 60 to 100 rupees per day and men earn 150 to 250 rupees per day. As pesticides are used in cotton crops, women are often affected by asthma and skin diseases.It has been estimated that women account for 23.55% in cotton areas. According to a civil society activist Javed Soz head of Sindh Community Foundation says that the cotton picking women are not organised as other labour groups and fail to negotiate their rights with policy makers for their economic justice and protection of rights of equal wages. This is because the cotton picking women are seasonal labourers so the labour policy in Pakistan does not cover this group of labourer as a labourer for social security benefits. There is need to hold advocacy for inclusion of the cotton picking into the labor policy.
They have poor bargaining power to fix the rate of the wages for picking cotton with the local land lord. He further adds that although Sindh Indusial Relation Act 2013 recognise agriculture workers in cotton as labor and rights for forming union but concrete actions have not been taken to ensure labor union of this section of agriculture labourers.