Daily Times

Pakistan is a developing country and most of its population lives in undesirable circumstances. A large number of people in our country do not have proper places to live, this miserable condition has given birth to a large number of beggars and dependence of people to survive on the charities. The economic conditions of an average individual are not encouraging. Poverty, hunger and unemployment have afflicted a large section of population.

Budget debates on development come and go, but poverty remains despite the rhetoric of economic objectives being to reduce poverty. The emphasis on large investments on economic infrastructure and the limited expenditure on education and health in the budget are reasons for this scepticism. Overall economic growth no doubt reduces poverty, yet the trickle down effect could be inadequate. A study on poverty has brought Pakistan face to face with a reality which says every third Pakistani is caught in the ‘poor bracket’ i.e. some 59.9 million out of a total population of 207 million subsist below the poverty line.  Lower per capita incomes make it extremely difficult for the poor to save and invest, a condition that perpetuates low productivity and low incomes. Furthermore, rapid population growth also quickly absorbs increase in per capita real income and thereby negates the possibility of breaking out of the underdevelopment circle. This burden of poverty is put heavily on the female population which is 48% of the total population of Pakistan, most of whom are neglected and under-nourished.

In the past few years, it has been experienced that income earning opportunities are few and far between for the poor women of both rural and urban areas. Few of them have learnt vocational skills and often seek additional income by making and selling local handicrafts, but lack proper linkages to market these products. Employment opportunities are scarce and real earnings have declined in the last decade. Majority of our poor women also lack basic human, physical and productive assets and have limited or no access to essential social services. The severe economic pressure on families is also a constraint in improving their health and sending their children to school. Unless these women are not empowered through education and skill development, the country won’t be able to remove gender inequality.

In the World Bank Policy Research Report, it is unambiguously suggested that women empowerment is being progressively recognized as an important policy goal for improving not just the well-being of women themselves but also for its positive impact on the family. Due to recent concern and emphasis on removing gender inequality and improving women empowerment as a Millennium Developmental Goal, many efforts have been initiated by the Government and other organizations in Pakistan. According to UNDP’s Human Development Report, Gender Equality Measure (GEM) for South Asia shows the lowest value (0.235) among all the regions of the world. Furthermore, as per Gender development Index (GDI), Pakistan has been noted the poorest (0.179) among South Asian Countries where the average index is 0.226 (MHHDC, 2005). According to UNDP report for 2018, the HDI for Pakistan is 0.551, which ranks Pakistan on 150th out of 189 countries.

Gender equality refers to that stage of human social development at which the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of individuals will not be determined by the fact of being born male or female, in other words, a stage when both men and women realise their full potential

Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world. How can we bring them into the mainstream, and empower the poor women of Pakistan in particular? This question is asked in different ways, sometimes focusing on making adjustments to existing systems, sometimes by considering whether to introduce particular programs or policies. Women’s empowerment is heavily dependent on many different variables that include geographical location, educational status, social status, and age. Policies on women’s empowerment exist at the national, provincial, and local levels in many sectors, including health, education, economic opportunities, gender-based violence, and political participation. However, there are significant gaps between policy advancements and actual practice at the community level. One key factor for the gap in implementation of laws and policies to address discrimination, economic disadvantages and violence against women at the community level is the largely patriarchal structure that governs the community and households in much of Pakistan. As such, women and girls have restricted mobility, access to education, access to health facilities, and lower decision-making power, and experience higher rates of violence.

The past decades have witnessed a steadily increasing awareness of the need to empower women through measures to increase social, economic and political equity, and broader access to fundamental human rights, improvements in nutrition, basic health and education.

Along with awareness of the subordinate status of women has come the concept of gender as an overarching socio-cultural variable, seen in relation to other factors, such as race, class, age and ethnicity. Gender is not synonymous with women, nor is it a zero-sum game implying loss for men; rather, it refers to both women and men, and to their status, relative to each other. Gender equality refers to that stage of human social development at which the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of individuals will not be determined by the fact of being born male or female, in other words, a stage when both men and women realize their full potential.

More recently, the attention has shifted towards making them masters of their own destinies, providing them with skills to earn their own livelihood. We need organizations that must contribute for sustainable development, aiming to empower women through social mobilization and institution building. Traditionally, Pakistan’s social protection system includes several social assistance programs of limited coverage. A recent review made by South Asian Research Foundation (SARF) showed that in Pakistan, safety net programs are fragmented and often duplicative. These programs have limited coverage, covering approximately 10-15 percent of the total population as compared to a poverty rate of about 35 percent. These programs are poorly targeted. The study further reveals inadequate institutional arrangements for multi-sectoral orientation of social protection agenda and low capacity in implementation and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). A considerable investment is needed to ensure that safety net programs are able to overcome these constraints and efficiently target poor women. We need to adopt a national targeting formula so as to identify and strengthen its implementation through National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). We need to economically rehabilitate poor women through skill training, training in demand based trades, market-based exploration, and ensure their financial security through these skills, resulting in improving their basic health.

We need to focus on modern skills, trades and techniques, with marketing opportunities for poor women folk both in rural and urban Pakistan. This will not only to improve the financial activities of poor women, but it will also improve capacity building and explore markets for the skilled yet vulnerable. There is no tool for development more effective then the empowerment of women. Let’s help empower them to add to the future of Pakistan, for they are the game changers.

The Writer is PhD Political Science, Civil Servant based in Islamabad. His area of Specialization is Political Development and Social Change. He can be reached at zafarkhansafdar@yahoo.com and followed on twitter@zafarkhansafdar

Published in Daily Times, October 2^nd 2018.