Daily Times

The Global Gender Gap Index 2018 is in. And IT PAINTS A PRETTY grim picture. For Pakistan ranks 148 out of 149 nations when it comes to gender parity. Only poverty-struck Yemen, which is currently facing the worst humanitarian crisis of the last half-century after close to three years of conflict, fares worse. Let that sink in for a moment.

Released this week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) report focuses on four areas: economic participation and opportunity (Pakistan’s ranking is 146); educational attainment (139); health and survival (145); and political empowerment (97). Afghanistan does not appear to have a score card. Thereby suggesting that it is home to insufficient data to engage in any significant breakdown on this front. What this says about the much-touted positive gains for women that have been brought about by 17 years of conflict is anyone’s guess. That being said, it cannot be denied that Afghan women currently enjoy political representation that was hitherto unknown. India, for its part, secures an overall ranking of 108. The widest gap between the latter and this country is in the realm of political empowerment; with New Delhi coming in at 19. This is perhaps the difference between uninterrupted democratic rule and intermittent bouts of marital law. And while South Asia has made the fastest progress over the last decade in terms of closing the gender gap — it currently remains the second lowest scoring region in this regard; with only Sub-Saharan Africa lagging dangerously behind.

This is simply not good enough. Admittedly, Pakistan has had a tricky time in the post-colonial period. Particularly when it still finds itself dragged into other people’s wars. This is to say nothing of how the country is flanked by two unresolved borders. Yet both Islamabad and New Delhi should hang their heads in shame at such dismal performances; while recognising linkages between peace and development. Not least because a country like Rwanda — enduring the horrors of genocide as recently as quarter of a century ago that left up to one million dead in a matter of months — today comes in at number six on the global gender gap index. Indeed, Kigali has been hailed as the best African country to be a woman. It boasts the world’s highest number of women lawmakers; comprising more than 60 percent of all parliamentarians. And while critics argue that this has failed to translate into meaningful legislation to uplift the majority of ordinary women — Rwanda is travelling on the right path.

Thus the WEF findings underscore the extent to which the clock is ticking for Pakistan. The challenge is for the ruling PTI to make significant headway in narrowing the gender gap over the next five years. And now that the first 100 days are over and done with, the time has come to get down to the nitty gritty. Meaning that the Imran Khan government absolutely needs to be more transparent about the terms and conditions of all foreign cash injections. This must be done with a view to working alongside relevant UN bodies as well as local experts to ensure that all development projects embrace positive discrimination and women quotas. In short, aid packages must be partially redirected to boost health and education budgets across the board; especially for women. Specific tranches ought to be additionally set aside to help women manual labourers who find themselves out of work due to workplace automating.

For unless and until women are mainstreamed — the country will have no hope of shrinking a gender gap that ought to be a source of great shame for the state itself.  *

Published in Daily Times, December 21^st 2018.