Sunday, March 10, 2013 – I have the privilege to participate in a number of seminars, workshops and other activities in connection with the International Women’s Day today ( March 8) being held in the Federal Capital, Islamabad, organized by different Non-profit and Non-governmental organizations.
While attending these activities, I think of ill-fated women of my home province Sindh, especially, the disasters and drought victim women whose plight is horrifying and horrendous. These women are in deep, deep trouble in the affected districts.
Regrettably, the past successive regimes and the relevant NGOs have done nothing toward ending epidemic violence against girls/ women. The tradition of inequality between men and woman runs deep.
Womenfolk are considered as the pillar of agriculture sector in the province but the plight of women in the agriculture is the worst beyond description They die premature death because of hunger, diseases and polluted water.
It is a painful fact that even the women parliamentarians could not take concrete steps to improve the plight of women in the province. The Sindh Bank Limited which has wasted away billions of rupees on its projection and image building, has not taken pragmatic and practical steps to uplift the women in the upper and lower Sindh districts. If the said Bank and also the First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) had provided employment opportunities to the educated women from the rural areas of the province, such initiatives would have drastically improved their plight in the rural society.
I express deep regrets over the never-ending vicious cycle against women in our Pakistani society, particularly, Sindhi and Baloch women and call for a movement for the advancement of rural women’s human rights. If women are the key to Pakistan’s future, then, we must figure out how to take away the barriers to their participation. Indeed, a change in attitudes, culture and habits is required. Above all, empowerment of women from the poor families is indispensable to tap the untapped talent of the Sindhi women from rural Sindh.
