This week You! takes a look at the manifestos based on women rights presented by different political parties taking part in the general elections this year...
This week You! takes a look at the manifestos based on women rights presented by different political parties taking part in the general elections this year...
According to the 6th Population & Housing Census 2017, Thar, famous for its rich culture and beautiful music, is the largest district by land out of the 29 districts in Sindh with a population of 1.65 million. There are 574,333 registered voters in the region out of which 254,522 are women, but the main question remains: what have governments, past and present, done to benefit the women of this region?
The authorities seem to ignore people here especially women and children living in remote areas, given that they are devoid of education and health facilities. But then, there is not much to see in other parts of the province or the country as well, even in areas that pride themselves on being urban areas. For instance, Karachi is the largest city of the country and it’s an industrial hub. Regardless, the city suffers from water shortage, power breakdowns and sewerage among other issues in many parts. For over a year and a half, there has been a lot of grumbling and squabbling regarding the funds and resources amongst leading parties to get a hold of Karachi, but so far no promising outcome has been observed. In fact, it has turned Karachi into a dump.
As far as education and health facilities in the city are concerned, the situation is deplorable. Those who can afford to send their children to private schools are being ripped off in the name of education with no accountability from the government. Precisely, in such dismal conditions, it is the women and children who have to face severe outcomes whether they live in Thar or Karachi.
Governments always seem to have little time and money to spend on the improvement of the health and education sector, especially for the poor. There is a substantial number of public hospitals listed on the website of Health Department Government of Sindh and the number is quite impressive. The government has also improved the situation especially by bringing down the rate of maternal and infant mortality, but there is still a lot more to be done.
Sindh has a long way to go in order to provide medical facilities in its remote regions so the far flung population does not have to travel long distances to find proper health care. Apart from health care, there are other serious issues faced by women that need the government’s concerted effort. Issues like protection from abuse and assault usually at the hands of their own families especially males; protection of their basic rights like inheritance; marriage; health; education.
Catering to the problems
Resolving these issues through legal methods should not be a big problem for the government since there is considerable number of women legislators, in both the National as well as the provincial assemblies. The National Assembly has 60 seats reserved for women and 29 in the Sindh Assembly. Women make 48.8 per cent of the total population of Pakistan (according to the 6th Population and Housing Census 2017) and 48 per cent of the total population of Sindh. If the presence of these legislators cannot work for the betterment of women in their constituencies, they are not fit to face the challenge of being an elected representative for them.
Although political parties seem to have understood the importance of women voters, they need to implement the promises they make during the election campaigns. The manifestos of the three major political parties are interesting to read as far as women go.
The age-old distress call
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari along with his two sisters, who earnestly support women-related issues and have been known to take party members and leaders to task on various occasions for anti-women remarks, are going to take part in the general elections 2018. The party’s election manifestos 2018 look interesting again as far as the women voters are concerned. It promises the female voters that they will do more for women of the Sindh province. It gives many incentives to them including initiating different programmes to empower women and work on a Mother-Child Support programme to ensure health facilities for the under-privileged in remote areas. But the other parties are also promising women more.
Last time, the PML-N assured to promote participation of women in national development and improvement of legislation on violence against women - which did make some ripples in Punjab at least. PML-N also promised in 2013 that it would ‘give preference to female teachers in primary education’ and ‘increase the micro credit for female borrowers; and also ensure that their right of inheritance and property be safeguarded’. This year, PML-N promises women that they will be able to get loans with little hassle. The party is interested in financially empowering its women voters - which might be of interest to the female entrepreneurs, encouraging them to come forward and earn a better living for themselves and their families by setting up new projects.
This party has also promised to provide safe commute to women, which is probably an extremely important issue as far as women who travel in public transport on a daily basis are concerned. These women know the necessity of safe commute and will probably be drawn to the party on this facility alone. Only a woman who uses public transport will understand the fears that they have for just being outdoors and will appreciate any effort in order to make this simple routine safer for them. The party has also promised up to 6 months of maternity leave, another well thought out concern which affects many working women. This is well complemented with the promise of working towards reducing neo-natal mortality to 25 per cent and providing them equal education, employment, health and mainstream opportunities among other things. It seems that the party is ready to push all the right buttons to lure in the women voters by touching upon some important issues faced by women, making it clear that they are quite aware of the importance of ‘her vote’.
On the other hand, PTI also seems to realise that votes from female voters is important for the elections and that is why they are putting their focus on them. The PTI election 2018 manifesto makes some interesting developments like pledging to provide women with financial assistance, give them more jobs; better maternity programmes and more vigilance and actions against sexual harassment complaints. The last two issues will hit home for the women and more female voters will mark the ballot paper in favour of the party that assures them that these areas will be addressed.
Once a government is formed in Sindh, it will be interesting to see how the ruling party/parties fulfil these promises. It will also be interesting to see how the women legislators elected into the assemblies will perform to resolve the issues relating to their gender, and if they are capable of tackling the serious problems.
It should not be too hard for the new government to build a workable structure as there are many structures already in place which only need to be tweaked or upgraded like: the National Policy for Development and Empowerment of Women; Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act; Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences in the name or pretext of Honour) Act; Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences Relating to Rape) and a National Plan of Action on Human Rights; as well as Gender Equality Policy Frameworks and Women’s Empowerment Packages and Initiatives.
Since Pakistan is a member of the UN and is party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948; the Beijing Platform for Action; the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Sustainable Development Goals, the new government wouldn’t have to begin from scratch to formulate plans for the betterment of the women population. It is time that Pakistan improved its ranking for gender equality and started moving forward in the right direction.
