Younis Chughtai
The fundamental credential for any vibrant, well functioning and prosperous society is that it must be not parochial towards the question of gender particularly towards women who constitute almost the half of the human civilization, Marginalization of such a substantial human potential is abound to create fissures and multi-faceted imbalances in the society.
In Pakistan, where women comprise 48 percent of the total population it is extremely pertinent that this larger chunk of population be mainstreamed effectively in the general socio- economic life of the society to gain equal gains for all the stratums of the society. Keeping in view the essence of Universal Human rights and Article 34 of respected constitution of Pakistan, provision of basic human rights that include freedom, equality and liberty, to every citizen without any discrimination is of fundamental importance.
Despite the fact that laws are being made and implemented with the true spirit, women around the globe, particularly in Pakistan are still at the receiving end. In fact, we have wronged the identification of the problem. Rather than focusing on eliminating the root cause, resources have been devoted to minimize the bad effects of this evil. According to a report, released by UN on 14th February 2018, 13 per cent of women in Pakistan (5 million) aged 18-49 are simultaneously deprived in four SDG related dimensions;
1) Child marriages, 2) Education, 3) Health and 4) Employment.
This pessimistic picture of progress over the subject of women empowerment depicts manifold problems with the resident discourse and practice of governance in Pakistan. The need of hour is to work for the systematic displacement of patriarchal discourse which keeps the women marginalized and suppressed. In a country like Pakistan, any such effort to establish an emancipatory discourse is crucial in achieving the dream of prosperous and healthy society. If this happens in society like Pakistan, it will have an everlasting elect on the growth and development of the country.
Empowering women is an uphill task. Resources are needed to be allocated in two fronts which include: short term institutional legal efforts and long term social engineering. Short term policy recommendations encompass:
1) Culture of gender responsive policymaking is needed to be evolved in different institutional setups across the country.
2) 8 per cent of total budget must be allocated for the education. Out of this, half of the resources should be spent on the women education.
3) An annual mechanism to review, guide and monitor the engendering and implementation of the provincial governments’ laws, policies and projects is needed to be formulated.
4) Establishment of provincial- and district-level Equality Ombudspersons, along with other grievance and complaint redress mechanisms us needed to denounce alternative mechanism that seeks to retain women in subservient, inhumane, relationships, e.g. illegal jirgas and punchayats.
On the other hand, Social engineering program at all levels of society are needed to be devised and implemented in order to displace the patriarchal foundations of our society. In order to establish an emancipator social and discursive sphere, it is required that the notion of women empowerment be aligned with the dominant legitimate discourse. These policy recommendations are:
o Using the platform of National Curriculum Council to incorporate the phenomenon of gender equality and women empowerment in the syllabus at all levels of education,
o Using national media, print and electronic, to internalize this notion among male and female components of the society so that both would be aware of their rights and duties.
o Using religious clerics to spread this notion among the masses. To avoid any backlash, these notions are required to be wrapped in intelligible and acceptable language.
Women empowerment ultimately depends upon gradual change in socio-cultural attitudes, repressive traditions and discriminatory customs and behaviors. The universal principles of gender justice and gender equality demand no less.
This articles was published before in Students’ Voice.
