Hundreds of rural women from different parts of the country gathered at Lok Virsa on Sunday for celebrating the International Rural Women Day and urged all the political parties to prioritise their rights in party manifestos.
The two-day colourful function was arranged by Potohar Organization for Development and Advocacy (PODA), Lok Virsa, Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) and other organizations.
Addressing the Int’l Rural Women Day conference, the speakers highlighted the plight of rural women who performed 80 percent of agriculture work in the rural areas.
The speakers lamented the fact that no agriculture policy existed either at the federal or the provincial level in the country. They demanded the government to formulate an agriculture policy with maximum incentives for the farmers and workers of agriculture sector.
They also called for providing technical training to the women farmers to meet the growing demands and initiating soft loan schemes.
The speakers strongly demanded to ban those polling stations which had less than 15 percent of women voters during the upcoming elections.
The rural women who had assembled from all the provinces highlighted that no political party had added a single line for their development in its manifesto.
While formulating the budget, no one considers any allocation for the uplift, training and welfare of rural women, they complained.
PODA Director Sameena Nazir appreciated the laws and legislations envisaged during the last four years.
She said it was a responsibility of the representatives of political parties to focus on implementation of these laws.
WORD’s Aqsa Khan and Sisters Trust Pakistan’s Rehana Hashmi also emphasized on promoting awareness among rural women about their ultimate rights.
Executive Director, Lok Virsa, Khalid Javed said women comprised more than 50 percent of the total population and hence their active role in the country’s development was very crucial.
He announced free entry of rural women in the Lok Virsa and Pakistan Monument Museum for two days of a week.
Along with the conference, an exhibition was also arranged with colourful products made by the rural women coming from different parts of the country.
The exhibition displayed around 25 stalls with different items including traditional dresses, shoes, jewellery, handicrafts, wallets, caps, vases and books on various subjects.
The stalls were set up by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO), PODA, Seher, Shirkat Gah, Beedari, Rozan, Irada, Children Global Network, Benazir Welfare Society, Silk Route Hunza, Trust for Conservation of Coastal Reserves, Catholic Women Organization and Acid Survivors Foundation.
