Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) held its first planning meeting on Monday with the Gender Equity Programme (GEP) partners to launch campaigns on gender-based violence. During the meeting, the Aurat Foundation awarded a grant to DTCE for four months under the USAID supported GEP. GEP is a five-year programme implemented by Aurat Foundation in collaboration with the Asia Foundation with the financial assistance of the American people through United States Agency for International development USAID. It aims at closing the gender gap in Pakistan by proactive support to the development of women. The programme seeks to facilitate behavioural change in society by enabling women to access information, resources and institutions, and improve societal attitudes towards women’s rights issues. The DTCE has been providing the technical assistance to other partner organisations needed for effective implementation of campaigns on gender based violence.
Younus Khalid of GEP said the in today’s meeting the action plans for the coming months were prepared that would be implemented to ensure consistent campaigning about the sensitive. The DTCE is the national partner in the implementation of these campaigns. Azhar Basir from DTCE said violence against women was a persistent and universal problem occurring in every culture and social group. “Around the world, at least one in every three women has been abused in her lifetime – most often by someone she knows, including a member of her own family, an employer or a co-worker. Violence against women has been called the most pervasive yet least recognised human rights abuse in the world. Gender violence occurs in both the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres.”
“In Pakistan different forms of violence against women prevails including but not limited to domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, stove-burning, dowry related violence, honour killings, trafficking and harassment at the work place,” Azhar Added.
Simultaneous campaigns will be carried out at district/tehsil levels all over Pakistan including AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, which will focus on raising awareness on gender-based violence, provide a forum for dialogue and information sharing, lobbying with the public sector stakeholders regarding the national and international commitments on gender, expressing solidarity with survivors and victims of gender based violence and celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of the women of Pakistan.