‘More funds be given to shelter homes’

The report criticised the low budgets allocated for providing rations at Darul Aman.

LAHORE:

Lack of awareness of institutions sheltering women is one of the major reasons for the increase in violence against them, a report issued on Friday says.

The South Asia Partnership Pakistan has issued the report, themed Pro-women Laws and Implementation Gaps at Women Protection Institutions.

Quoting from the report, SAP-PK Multan coordinator Sultan Mahmood said most women in Muzaffargarh and Multan were unaware of shelter institutions. He stressed the need for running such institutions in a better way. He said living conditions at most shelter homes were heart sickening.

He said many shelter homes lacked basic health facilities. “Offices of physiologists and doctors at many of the shelter homes are vacant.”

According to the report, cases related to violation of women’s rights were on the rise in rural areas. It said poverty was often the reason behind distress within a family. The report also focused on living condition and rehabilitation mechanisms at shelter homes.

The report was issued following group discussions in seven union councils each in Muzaffargarh and Multan. It evaluated the institutions working for social and economic well-being of the destitute, orphan and working women.

It said the objectives of Darul Falah, Darul Aman and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Human Rights Centres were overlapping. It advised the provincial government to merge the institutions having identical objectives.

Citing articles of the Constitution guaranteeing equal rights, the report criticised the government for not being able to enact and enforce laws.

The report said nearly 90 per cent of the people in Multan were unaware of government institutes working for the protection and welfare of women. It said 95 per cent of women were unaware of how to approach such institutes.

The report recommended that the government publicise these institutions to spread awareness.

It criticised the low budgets allocated for providing rations at Darul Aman.

Darul Aman – an institution established in 2007 in 34 districts of the Punjab with the objective of protecting women from physical and psychological abuse – has an allocation of only Rs100 a day for food per person.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2015.