The Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Thursday said that the small traders, cottage industry and women have been ignored in the federal budget.
Over 96 per cent businesses fall in the category of small businesses but the budget has offered them nothing while women, who make 51 per cent of the population, have also been ignored, it said.
ICST Patron Shahid Rasheed Butt asked, “How can Pakistan become a success when small traders and women feel side-lined?”
He said that some countries have been ignoring the poor in their struggle for improved economic growth which has triggered poverty and has affected the women.
He said that our government should revisit some policies for the welfare of the poor and reduce growing inequality which is disturbing the society. There is a 1.5 billion poor population in Asia out of which 660 million people are very poor and majority of the world’s poor live in the SAARC (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) region, he said. Human Development Index says that 60.3 per cent of Pakistanis live on $2 per day while United Nations says that 71 per cent of eligible girls do not attend the secondary school, he added.
He said that the reasons behind poverty among women are unfriendly attitude of the policymakers, gender inequality, lack of education, absence of credit facilities, and apathy towards small and medium-sized enterprises etc. Women on average get 40 per cent less salary in the SAARC region than their male colleagues, he said.
