At first, Batool, 32, thought cotton picking would bring her a reliable income after the death of her husband in 2009. But she was unaware of the health risks the work posed.She has been suffering from recurring headaches, skin and eye ailments since she started cotton picking, and can spend as much as a third of her $80 monthly income on health bills.

“Every season I suffer problems when I return home after cotton picking. But I cannot abandon the job because my two children depend on me,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.Women labourers make up the bulk of the estimated half a million cotton pickers in Pakistan, the world’s fourth biggest cotton producer.With the widespread use of pesticides, and a lack of safety equipment, Batool’s story is familiar to many of th…