President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said the digital and financial inclusion, safe environment and good health were the key factors to contribute to empowerment of the women in a society.
The president, addressing the launching ceremony of the National Gender Data Portal, said the data collection was inevitable for policy formulation and decision making.
Developed by the National Council on Status of Women and the UN Women, the interactive portal would provide statistics and knowledge on indicators related to the women and support the government to report on international obligations on gender.
The president said it was a must to go back to our roots when Islam had liberated women from exploitation and provided her inheritance rights some 1500 years ago.He said there could be no empowerment sans right in inheritance and financial inclusion. The laws in Pakistan always protected women’s inheritance rights which had been further ensured by empowering the offices of federal ombudsmen which would ensure her inheritance right as well as retrieval of her grabbed property.
The president said the West had granted women their rights not more than a 100 years ago as prior to that, in the UK, the woman as well as all her belongings used to be considered the man’s property. Referring to a higher dropout rate of girls from schools, he said it was society’s responsibility to provide them a safe environment also keeping in view cultural and traditional norms.
The president said it was also equally essential to protect women’s health by avoiding frequent pregnancies as infant and maternal mortality would never let the women empower.He also called for providing safer public space to women for their fearless movement to and from educational institutes or work places.
President Alvi, who earlier launched the Portal, told the gathering that the government was about to start disbursing cash assistance to women through their bank accounts which would provide her a better control over the money besides increasing her value in the family.He said the government and the society including chambers should arrange employment for the educated women and skill training for illiterate to enable them sells out their products in the markets or through e-marketing.
Reiterating the importance of the data, the president however disagreed with Pakistan’s “inaccurate” ranking for gender gap but he simultaneously also expressed his concern about the situation and called for the remedial measures for women inclusion and empowerment.
The president mentioned the government’s pro-women initiatives like easy loans by banks considering the women more reliable in repayment.
Chairperson National Commission on Status of Women, Nilofar Bakhtiar apprised the gathering of the successful ongoing 16 days of activism on violence against women.She lauded active participation of people in South Punjab, tribal areas, Sindh and Balochistan.
She disagreed with the country’s international ranking on gender gap and hoped the portal would help provide correct data to report the correct situation. Regarding the cases of violence against women, she said, the COVID-related frustration among men owing to unemployment, and other economic issues could also be among the reasons.
Resident Coordinator of the United Nations, Julien Harneis also applauded the effective activism campaign across the country including in villages and on mountains. Calling the challenge of the gender a challenge of Pakistan, he said the government had shown impressive performance through legislation and other initiatives to protect women rights including Ehsaas cash assistance.
The Resident Coordinator spoke high of President Alvi’s role to lead on every social issue of the country and recalled his participation in a recently held seminar on family planning also held at the Presidency.
Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nabeel Munir said Pakistan’s commitment for women empowerment was derived from the religion which also reflected in its policies.
He said Pakistan’s women were engaged in every forum having contributed to the highest offices like prime minister, National Assembly speaker and top positions in military.He said the Portal would provide accurate data and ensure better coordination among federating units and leading to a better reporting on international obligations and for decision making.
