TESTIMONY - Presented by International Network of Women Against Tobacco
(INWAT) and the International Alliance of Women (IAW).
For the WHO hearings February 26, Brasilia, in connection with the WHO
Study group meeting on alternative crops (27-28 February), Brasilia.
Hadda Wolde Giorgis, Deputy Director of the Centre for Human Environment in
Ethiopia and Litha Musyimi-Ogana from Kenya.
The International Network of Women Against Tobacco and the International
Alliance of Women raise our voices at these hearings to defend the human
rights of women tobacco workers. Women are seldom counted but they are the
backbone of tobacco farming and production. In countries like Brazil,
Malawi, and Zimbabwe, where the majority of family farms grow tobacco,
women work as unpaid family laborers. Who is transplanting the seedlings by
hand in the heat of day? Who weeds the fields, carries the wood for curing,
and hangs the leaves? Women and, sadly, many children. In India, women and
child workers are the majority of the 5 million workers in bidi production
that accounts for over 50 percent of total tobacco use. They may be aware
that they are involved in the production of a deadly, additive product. But
they have become trapped by debt and despair.
What is happening in villages? Here are some testimonies we gathered for
the first WHO hearing on tobacco that remind us to be vigilant.
Hadda Wolde Giorgis, Deputy Director of the Centre for Human Environment in
Ethiopia has said “The horrendous impact of tobacco on pregnant women is
critical in a country like ours with already high infant and maternal
mortality rates. Our young people, who are the future of our country, are
easily tempted and addiction is sweeping away their hopes for life-long
good health. Tobacco-related diseases and nicotine addiction are even more
serious among our poor who are already exposed to tuberculosis and other
respiratory diseases. Exposure to passive smoke violates our women and
children's rights to safe and healthy environments. We are concerned about
the health of women and children exposed to pesticides and nicotine on
tobacco-growing family farms. Money that could be used for basic survival
is being used for tobacco production and importation.”
Litha Musyimi-Ogana from Kenya was equally concerned, saying, “I come from
a tobacco growing community in Mbeere District in Kenya. In the past, I
can recall seeing in every homestead -- dwellings, a livestock shed and a
granary for storing agricultural produce for domestic consumption. But all
that has changed with the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop. Today, in
the tobacco growing part of Mbeere district almost all homesteads, the
livestock shed and the granary/food stores have disappeared. All you see
now are dwellings and tobacco drying kilns in the compounds. Tobacco, the
cash crop, has replaced the food crops and livestock and threatens the food
security of every family. Yet tobacco is not yielding enough money for
these people to buy food for subsistence and viable livelihoods.
Two months ago when I visited the villages, I asked the farmers why they
had no food and yet they had a good harvest. They informed me that since
the tobacco trade had been liberalized, they no longer had guaranteed
buyers for their produce. Before liberalization, they told me they could
get free seed, pesticides, delivery of dry leaves and their checks on time.
With free trade, there has been competition among the tobacco manufacturing
companies and this has hit the farming communities at a time when they have
already abandoned subsistence crops. Now, Mbeere district is one of the
worst famine stricken districts in the country. With the current drought
the farmers are surviving on food rations and famine relief supplies. “
These are microcosms of a bigger story in which global trade, weakened
economies, and wealthy tobacco companies play out their destinies. This
meeting and the WHO FCTC must change those globalised structures and
restore hope. But we must be honest with ourselves—we are already far
behind the tobacco industry. As part of their counteroffensive to the
treaty’s progress, companies have been busy exploiting the fears of women
tobacco workers. Through the efforts of front organizations like the
International Tobacco Growers’ Association, they have sent propagandists to
local bidi organizations and family farms spreading fears of unemployment
and a bleak economic future. But they do not tell the whole truth.
* They do not tell women that working in tobacco farming is making them
sick through green tobacco sickness and exposure to pesticides and tobacco
dust.
* They turn their backs to the plight of impoverished families affected by
natural disasters and environmental degradation—all in the name of free
enterprise.
* They rebuke strong evidence that tobacco is actually creating poverty and
depriving women and children of a viable livelihood.
What do women want?
First, we support the strong implementation of the WHO FCTC and its
provisions for gender-sensitive policies and programs in all Articles. As
stated in the Kobe Declaration in 1998 and the Toledo Declaration on Women
and Tobacco in 2005, women’s involvement in tobacco cultivation and
production should be a priority issue.
Second, funds, technical assistance, and training that are targeted for
crop diversification and alternative crops need to be made available to
women, not just male heads of households
Third, female-friendly economic schemes to alleviate rural poverty in the
transition to diversification and alternative crops need more attention.
These may include micro-credit, income-generating projects for home
gardens, and labor-saving household improvements.
Fourth, governments must strengthen women’s leadership so as to mobilize
them in support of new agricultural programs as well as tobacco control and
ensure gender equality in all sectors.
Magalys Arocha Dominguez of the Federation of Cuban Women once declared,”
As a women’s organization, we should support the outcome of the FCTC and
publicize its content to raise awareness among the population.” Women
leaders are ready to do their part—but governments must also demonstrate
their commitment through stronger financial and political support for
gender justice.
Comments