KARACHI – The worst victims of the last year’s flood have been the women of the province as the government and other relief agencies did not give them priority while their issues still remain largely unaddressed.
This was pointed out by speakers at a dialogue held on women rights hosted by women wing of Sindhi Association of North America. SANA vice-president Noor Nisa Ghanghro presided over the session, which was attended by a large number of political and women rights’ activists.
The speakers emphasised that all poverty-alleviation programmes must address the gender poverty issue while particularly focusing on rural women
Expressing grave concern over a recent report from the flood-hit areas of Sindh that over a million rural women were suffering from blood anaemia, they demanded that the authorities concerned should take the issue seriously and immediately help the womenfolk of the province.
The participants of the conference demanded special focus and endowment for areas worst-affected by the scourge of honour killings, adding that gender-specific social spending must be increased. Urging that the government allot lands to landless women in the province, they demanded rights of crop-sharing for women peasants in rural areas and equal wages as of men.
The participants noted that all efforts for increasing woman participation in the labour force have not produced the desired results and demanded that the government must come up with legislation for increasing employment in public and private sectors. Noting that industries in rural areas do not give jobs to women, they stated that women-specific legislation was not enough and there should be a mechanism to monitor the implementation process.
The speakers demanded helpful women police stations for all areas and human rights trainings for workforce stationed at the police stations. The conference expressed extreme dissatisfaction over mere 12 percent representation of women in education, with several girls’ colleges and high schools in the province without specialist subject teachers.
They called on the government for immediate review of state of educational institutes for women and special focus on inclusion of women in voter-registration lists to increase their participation in the political process.
Parliamentarians Rasheeda Panhwar, Marvi Rashdi, Dr Shireen Narejo, Nazir Qureshi, TV anchor Maheen Hisbani, Dr Rafiq Chandio, Mushaque Rajpar, Attiya Dawood, Sanam Agha and Saher Imdad among others also spoke on the occasion.
