Women, rights activists and transgender persons held a march at Sea View on Sunday demanding women empowerment, equal wages, enforcement of women health care and laws protecting transgender community, end of discrimination and patriarchy.
The organisers of the rally were issued conditional no objection certificate to hold the public meeting and rally at the Beach Park by the local administration. Rights activist and classical dancer Sheema Kermani said the rally was organised to celebrate Women’s Day as well as Mother’s Day. She said district authorities issued a conditional NOC which they could not accept and refused to sign on it.
She criticised the Sindh government for creating hurdles in organising the Aurat March. “We are demanding shelter and safety for women, because women have no spaces of shelter in this city, in this province. There are very few shelters where women can go to. So, we demand shelters for women,” said Sheema.
Participants of the rally held placards and banner inscribed with slogans for safe environment for women, enforcement of rights and end of discriminatory laws in the country. They demanded that the state formally recognise all forms of domestic, care and household labour as legitimate and essential work.
They also demanded that this labour must be included in the legal definition of formal work and accounted for in all relevant legislation, including labor protections, social security policies, and economic planning frameworks.
The participants demanded abolition of slavery in Sindh and other provinces. They demanded that all workers, whether working in factories, farms and homesteads, as domestic workers, as home based workers, or sanitation workers, be given a living wage based on access to safe housing, quality education and affordable healthcare for themselves and their families and enforcement of minimum wage across all sectors.
They demanded that the Home-Based Workers Act 2018 be implemented immediately and the Sindh government make immediate arrangements to have workers registered. They demanded withdrawal of ongoing cases of defamation against lawyers, journalists and activists under PECA or defamation laws.
They demanded that the federal government uphold the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 in its original form and called for action against the escalating hate campaign online and the extreme violence on ground, including mob violence, which is used to intimidate and murder members of the marginalised community.
They urged the government to pay attention to minority rights and called for an end to abduction, harassment, forced marriages, sexual grooming, rape and forced conversions of girls and women from religious minorities.
