The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has launched a number of income-generating programmes for women, enabling them to take part in socio-economic uplift in the country.
“They are being educated on how to earn their livelihood through various programmes across the country,” said AIOU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi, addressing a gathering on the occasion of the International Women’s Day. The event was arranged by Women and Gender Study Department Chairperson Ms Nomana Anjum. “The AIOU has planned setting up of 3,000 rural Internet schools across the country. These schools as a pilot project would be opened by July next for which necessary equipment worth Rs 10 million would be provided,” Dr Sangi said and added services of 70,000 volunteer students of the AIOU would be required to run these schools. Sabgfi said female students would be encouraged to take part in a tree-plantation campaign during which the AIOU would plant 100,000 saplings. “This is part of the income-generating programme to be undertaken on self-help basis by women throughout the country,” he added. Dr Sangi announced the AIOU would be given equal opportunity to female students for participating in various distance-learning programmes. “We wish to be a helping hand to the government for preparing women to take part in the national development without any discrimination,” he added.
About empowering female employees and students of the university, Dr Sangi said the university had already taken various steps to facilitate them at their regional campuses. “The facilities include construction of a hostel at the regional offices in remote areas, allotment of a separate room in each campus of the university for female employees for eating food and offering prayers,” he pointed out. “A recreational area (a park) has also been built near the residential colony of the university while a three-storey building will be built for children, he concluded.
