The Malala incident provided stark illustration of the distorted mindset, which seeks to supress half the population in our country, while the public outrage against the incident demonstrates the prevailing desire to offer women and girls in Pakistan a better future.
The causes of gender disparities in our country are, however, multidimensional and cannot be attributed to a sudden surge in extremist threats alone. The current situation is the result of generations of neglect and patriarchal norms, which pervade most spheres of public and private life across Pakistan.
Unesco has just estimated that an estimated 62 per cent of Pakistani girls, between the ages of seven and 15, have never gone to school. This ratio is much worse compared with the 30 per cent estimate for India and nine per cent for Bangladesh. Education is, of course, not the only problem when it comes to gender-related disparities in our country. Pakistan now occupies the last spot amongst countries of the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2012, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), based on economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.
We cannot blame the gender disparities in our country on religion or poverty, considering that the status of women is much better in a poorer Muslim country like Bangladesh, which was ranked 86th on the same index.
At the same time, however, entities like the WEF are themselves not without fault, since they aim to propagate an economic system, which is itself largely responsible for a range of gender inequalities plaguing most developing countries. For instance, it is pressure from international development agencies to curb public spending, which has led to privatisation of public services like health and education. The uneven nature of globalisation, accompanied by the coerced liberalisation of developing countries, also forces women to accept low-paying wages in the informal sector just to ensure household survival, while multinational corporations profit obscenely from these discriminatory wages.
However, our government and donor agencies seem equally oblivious to these broader inequities. Consider for instance the recent press release stressing how the ministries of finance and women's development aim to make greater efforts to provide updated and timely data concerning women’s economic empowerment to international agencies in order to improve our international rankings, whereas donor agencies have reiterated their willingness to help relevant ministries identify means to increase national competitiveness, which simultaneously empower women.
Better (or even doctored) data collection cannot, however, solve existing problems on the ground. Also, the much-touted emphasis on donor-supported strategies, like use of micro-credit to turn women into empowered entrepreneurs, does not provide a very relevant solution in the Pakistani context at least, where it is still men who exert control over finances, even if accessed in the name of their womenfolk.
Women are already bearing the dual burden of household management and ensuring household survival. However, the problem is that their work is not adequately acknowledged, respected or remunerated.
Due to their vulnerable position in society, women in home-based cottage industries, are thus readily exploited by middlemen, who take advantage of their social immobility to pay them a fraction of the price their products are sold for. Women’s work in the agricultural sector is not duly compensated either and they are denied land-ownership, despite the Islamic laws of inheritance, since social pressure compels them to hand over their share of land to their brothers.
Instead of focusing on market-based solutions or becoming more data-obsessed, it is these underlying problems, which donors and our state institutions must pay more attention to, in order to help improve the socio-economic circumstances of women and ensure a better future for girls in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2012.
COMMENTS (7)
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@wonderer: "How I wish there were some like you in Pakistan."
There are people much better and braver than me in Pakistan. Sadly they are all being tormented by extremists and the state is doing nothing to protect them.
@gp65:
Thanks again. I would not have commented as I did if your comment had come before 12 noon. I as glad you have done that now. And believe me, no one else could have been more forceful and relevant. How I wish there were some like you in Pakistan.
"Instead of focusing on market-based solutions or becoming more data-obsessed, it is these underlying problems, which donors and our state institutions must pay more attention to"
Without collecting the data (or becoming data obsessed as you say) how will you know that the underlying problems you are concerned with are being effectively addressed?
"Unesco has just estimated that an estimated 62 per cent of Pakistani girls, between the ages of seven and 15, have never gone to school. This ratio is much worse compared with the 30 per cent estimate for India and nine per cent for Bangladesh."
I followed your link but it did not provide me where you got the data that 30% of girls in India have never been to school? According to this data gathered by a survey of 14000 rural areas by Pratham in 2011, only 3.3% of rural kids in age 6-14 are not in school. http://images2.asercentre.org/aserreports/ASER2011/enrollmentand_learning.pdf One would expect that the number s even smaller for urban kids.Assuming that every single child that is not in school was a girl, the percentage of girls not in school would be 6.6%. Also remember a girl of 14 who is not currently in school could very well be a drop out. So where did you get the data that says 30% of Indian girls are not in school? Would appreciate reference. Following the links you had given did not give me that information.
@Wonderer What would women have to say when they know girls schools are being blown away in FATA and KP, when they see the Lahore school providing quality and affordable education to girls being destroyed by vigilante mobs due to blasphemy accusation on teachers, when they see what happened to Malala and the response of the state to her tormentors (nothing), when they are aware of what happened last year in Rawalpindi where 50-60 goons with weapons entered a girls school in Rawalpindi and beat up girls who were in school uniform because they were not suitably attired per Islamic norms. Apparently the police had instructions not to intervene, when amount allocated to education continues to be reduced (the last I heard was 1,7% of GDP). I don't say there are no problems with women's education in my country - because there are - but they relate to quality and retention issues. The basic access problem has been solved and there is a government school within 1.5 mile walking for 99% of population in India.
Passing right to education at federal level after devolving education to state level is a cruel joke of trying to take credit for something without having any funding responsibility.
@x:
Wonderful idea indeed. But, from where will you get the teachers?
english should be made the national language of pakistan. education will improve, access to jobs will improve, productivity will improve, ability to access material which propagates progressive and informed ideas will arise, women will benefit the most from this.
"We cannot blame the gender disparities in our country on religion or poverty, considering that the status of women is much better in a poorer Muslim country like Bangladesh, which was ranked 86th on the same index."
Poverty does not have impact on gender gap but the religion certainly has which is reflected in the list which shows the last ten countries are Muslim majority countries i.e Yemen, Pakistan, Chad, Syria, Saudi Arabia , Cote d Ivoire, (Ivory cost) Morocco, Mali, Iran, & Egypt. Stricter form of religion is dominant in these countries while Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia though Muslim countries have liberal face of Islam with focus on women education have much better ranking
Wonder of wonders. It is past 12 noon in Pakistan, and not even one comment on this thoughtful piece; not even by a woman.
Such lack of interest in women's issues is probably the main reason for their prevalent condition.