It's a season of mangoes and Covid-19.

Byline: Mohammad Hussain Khan

THE season of the king of fruits - mangoes - has started. But this year, it starts amidst serious concerns of coronavirus spreading in Sindh's rural areas since thousands of labourers arrive from South Punjab, mainly Muzaffargarh. Under the current circumstances, allowing them to enter Sindh is risky since this may allow the contagion to spread in rural areas which, by and large, have remained safe compared with urban areas.

To harvest mangoes, big orchard owners let out their farms to contractors. Punjab's labourers - hired by the orchard contractors - have begun to arrive in Sindh's mango farms, which are larger, through different means of transport, while consignments from these farms have started reaching Punjab.

Till May 7, the Sindh government was debating standard operating procedures (SOPs) to let these workers enter the province. Draft SOPs have been presented to the Sindh government by Sharjeel Inam Memon, an orchard owner who is a Sindh Assembly member from Hyderabad's rural area. He had raised this issue of Punjab's labourers with the government as they turned up in thousands.

'I have discussed SOPs with the Sindh chief minister and he has not yet finalised them. We are trying to see the situation is handled adroitly,' says Mr Memon, an influential member of Sindh's ruling party.

Among other measures, the 11-point draft recommends that growers/contractors provide a list of workers from other provinces. It also states enrollment forms will have to be filled and submitted before revenue officials within five working days of labourers commencing work. Items such as gloves, masks and hand sanitisers have to be provided to those working along the entire mango value chain.

Every grower has to try to engage the maximum number of local labourers and minimise hiring from elsewhere for plucking and packing purposes. If a worker develops Covid-19 symptoms, he has to be sent for a checkup. A proforma has to be filled by each worker for tracking and tracing purposes.

'There is no rocket science involved which would prevent local labour from learning to pluck or pack mangoes. Previously, nobody thought of departing from the conventional practice of labour coming in from Punjab to Sindh because there was no reason for it'

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