LAHORE – A vigil was held outside the Lahore Press Club (LPC) on Monday to mark the Women’s Day. Kashf Foundation staff and clients from low income groups gathered outside the LPC to express solidarity with women all around the world. Talking to journalists outside the LPC, Kashf Foundation Internal Audit Head Ghulam Haider Chaudhry said that Pakistan could have economic development by investing in women entrepreneurship.
A real socio-economic change is possible only if families or individuals change their attitude towards women’s economic rights and poverty could be eradicated by providing financial services to women, he said. People held placards and banners including “Providing access to financial services to women”, “Empower Women, Empower Pakistan”, “Women Empowerment is Economic Empowerment”, “Financial Equality is equal to Social Justice” and chanted slogans for women empowerment.
Women representatives of the foundation including Shahla Sattar, Mehvish Arifeen and Sana Maqsood said that microfinancing is an effective tool to alleviate poverty due to which the federal and provincial governments and civil society should focus more on microfinance to reduce poverty and gender inequality. The future of Pakistan lies in the progress of women.
If women are socio-economically well-equipped then the nation’s future would be strong and dynamic, they said. A vigil was also held outside the Punjab Assembly where the Kashf Foundation, along with women workers from the South Asia Partnership Pakistan, War Against Rape and others also participated. Separately, Home Net Pakistan celebrated the Women’s Day with women legislators and leaders in the Punjab Assembly.
The theme of the 100-year celebration was “equal access to education training, science and technology”. The participants said that women be given rights especially in order to provide them with better work. In Pakistan, women and girls in poor households bear a disproportionately high burden of poverty and their greater deprivation is due to their restricted mobility, lack of educational training, lower access to ownership of resources and assets and limited access to credit and social services, they said. Home Net Pakistan deals with issues related to home-based women workers. Umme Laila Azhar, MPA Sajida Mir and Zakia Shahnawaz attended the event, which was also attended by Farzana Mumtaz, Salman Abid, Aaima Mehmood, Uzma Bukhari, Mehnaz Rafi and Arifa Khalid.
They said that women must have training and access to education because this was the only way to move forward, and if women did not do this, they would forever be stuck in a mire of problems. Speakers said that economic empowerment was something which was also extremely important so that a woman could be independent despite this being her basic right and need. Several events would also be held on March 8 to mark the Women’s Day and remember the significance of women achievers.
