Cycle of exclusion

Today marks the annual International Day of the Girl Child. Officially established in 2011, the day aims to highlight the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights. Sadly, this is an aim that many countries, particularly those in the Global South, are failing to achieve. According to UN data, nearly 20 per cent of all girls worldwide are still not completing lower-secondary school and almost twice as many are not completing upper-secondary school. Meanwhile, a Unicef report has found that more than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in every eight worldwide, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18. This number rises to a shocking one in five when taking into account ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse. Speaking of online, UN data also shows that girls are lagging when it comes to access to new technologies, with an estimated 90 per cent of adolescent girls and young women not using the internet in low-income countries. The exposure to sexual violence and abuse online likely has something to do with this problem, along with the fact that many girls still have to bear the blame for this sort of abuse. This usually results in them losing access to something or another.

These figures are a searing indictment of global efforts to ensure equality for women, which begins with ensuring that girls have the opportunities and protection they deserve and are not excluded from society because of their gender. Failing to tackle discrimination and exclusion of girls ultimately results in women having a more diminished role and voice in society, which keeps renewing the cycle of neglect and disparity. In Pakistan, an estimated 53 per cent of the over 25 million out-of-school children are girls, which has resulted in a labour force where women are disproportionately underrepresented. The female labour participation rate in Pakistan is just slightly over 24 per cent as compared to around 80 per cent of men and the gap is particularly acute at the top of the economic pyramid with women making up a mere 5.71 per cent of legislators, senior officials and managers as per the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report.

For young girls growing up in Pakistan, there are few women in power whom they can look up to and count on to protect their rights. The lack of women in the workforce also undermines girls’ access to critical services such as healthcare and education, given that girls are more likely to feel comfortable in these environments when women are present. This makes evident the cyclical nature of gender exclusion. And while gender gaps in Pakistan have actually slightly narrowed and the nation has passed new bills to address issues like sexual harassment and domestic violence, it is clear that the progress has been too slow and what laws the country does have are not being implemented as well as they should be. Much the same can be said about other poor countries as well. Expanding protections and rights for women and girls on paper can only achieve so much and has to be backed by efforts to increase their presence in education, the digital sphere, media, workplaces, and top leadership positions. Without such changes, the cycle of abuse and exclusion will only continue.