Daily Times

Tax morale is influenced by social norms, evasion methods, vision, and the mindset of the leadership. It remains imperative for the governments to address matters of gender differences and discrimination in the governance systems, including their tax systems. Pakistani women have significantly higher tax morale than men, but their attitudes towards tax compliance “drastically worsen with the passage of time to the extent that elderly males have higher tax morale than elderly females.”This finding came from a study by Musharraf Cyan et al in 2016. Globally, a wealth of literature is being produced, questioning the gender indifference of taxation systems, especially amidst the impact of the COVID-19. Many policy forums have advocated that establishments should ensure that they consider the impact of tax policy regulations on gender. “Tax Policy and Gender Equality A Stock Take of Country Approaches” is an important report released by the OECD in February 2022, featuring responses from 43 countries. The report’s key messages include, “Tax policy can contribute to gender equality and to governments’ efforts to reduce inequalities,” and “governments can act to improve the gender outcomes of taxation.” The IMF released a working paper, entitled, “Gendered Taxes: The Interaction of Tax Policy with Gender Equality” in February 2022 that details the interactions between tax policy and gender equality, besides discussing corrective gender-based taxes, the political economy of taxation, explicit and commoner but harder to discuss implicit gender biases.

The disparity between the lavish lifestyles of our legislators, political leaders, and civil and military bureaucrats cannot be even dared to question the way it should be even by daring activists, pious religious scholars and blunt analysts and journalists. The “principle of equality” among all nonelite taxpayers works exceptionally well in our taxation systems. The system slackens to tax the rich and the filthy rich and prospers in pestering the regular taxpayers, mainly from salaried classes or freelancers is unmindful of the needs of the (unhappily) divorced mothers with financial and social insecurities. Divorced women, women with disabilities, divorced due to disability/ies, never-married single women, foster mothers, widowed mothers, transwomen, and many other categories of women with a combination of culturally coded odds and socially sanctioned stigmas are practically nonexistent in any policy action and our discussion.

Empowerment of women means empowerment of all women with the contextualisation of their needs and going beyond Tokenism.

The UN and all allies that reach the power tables, where such decisions are made in a complicated language and complex means of achieving targets are designed, rarely have the time and tendency to look at the issues of all women, without homogenising them with empathy and intersectionality lens. Like other UN members, Pakistan, too, is committed to these SDGs and the pledge to “Leave No One Behind” and reach “first to the furthermost,” but reality checks speak volumes of the contradictions between such pledges and practices.

In these post-COVID times, there is no intervention to make the taxation system fit the needs of single mothers, especially divorced mothers, who are denounced pretty well. Discrimination based on the marital status of women in general and those mothers who are “divorced or take Khulla” is yet to grab the attention of the concerned quarters. The famous SDG5 is “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” The agenda 2030, considered the pivot point for the rest of the 16 SDGs, is also silent about it. None of its nine targets and 14 indicators talk about the empowerment of divorced mothers. It is also mute about other categories of women and mothers surviving injustices in taxation matters.

Not only do the divorced women in Pakistan face unprecedented challenges during the process of divorce (that are further heightened if the woman opts for khula), settling custody of children and maintenance, but life seldom treats a vast majority of them with dignity even afterwards. As per some available research studies, divorced women who happen to work in an office environment ( considered civilised and with décor) frequently experience gossiping, unwarranted attention, and a lack of professional development opportunities. Those single mothers who are not widows ( as the latter get some degree of respect and property tax exemption) have yet to claim their space in public policy, banking procedures, ease of doing business, budgets, and the taxation system of Pakistan.

What and where are the enabling mechanisms for the financial security of a common divorced mother? Where is the access to equal opportunities for decently paid work? How the common women despite having good qualifications and skillset but not having a strong surname or desired marital status can support themselves and their various family members throughout their life spans? These and many other relevant uncanvassed questions are needed to be answered urgently by our well-funded think tanks, non-profits, public institutions, IFIs and UN agencies. I have disclosed my “bias” for the case of divorced moms because they bear the greater brunt of scorn and despise than the women who are single mothers through other pathways. However, by no means, does this mean that their ordeals are trivialised or sidelined.

Empowerment of women means empowerment of all women with the contextualisation of their needs and going beyond Tokenism. It means ensuring economic immunity to all women without belittling them for any reason, including their marital status. Our political and civil society representatives must revisit the state of the status of our women. An inclusive economy is a need for time. Gender equality, gender mainstreaming, empowerment of women and financial inclusion have become meaningless ceremonial words and concepts if not lame jokes. These are curated within the public sectors and speeches of the legislators, ministers, and civil servants, drafted in consultation by the donors and technical aid agencies. Pakistani men hold the number one position in the world for owning biases against women and the country is characterised by inequalities in all areas of human development. Our gender inequality rank of 153 out of 156 countries though widely publicised in media has failed to embarrass those who are at the helm of the affairs. Deep-rooted deception of our concerned organisations from private, public and donor sectors is continuously selling illusionary optimism and progress. The corporate feminism that is being mainstreamed in Pakistan is an ineffective medicine to treat the emotional, fiscal, physical, and spiritual injuries of so many “other” women.

The writer is a published author, Ashoka Fellow, Public Health & GESI Expert and founder of thinktank Apna Wallet.