My voice, our equal future

Women in Pakistan need role models projecting positive portrayal of their strength and ability across all disciplines

Every year on October 11, as the world celebrates the International Day of the Girl, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and partners reiterate their resolve to help girls around the world amplify their voices and stand up for their rights. They work with girls to design and launch advocacy campaigns related to their lived gender inequities and demands for equal opportunities.

This year, while we face the global Covid-19 crisis, we must seize the opportunity to reimagine a better world inspired by adolescent girls — sharing their voices, their solutions — under the theme, ‘My voice, our equal future’.

This year’s International Day of the Girl has added significance as a key activation moment of the global Generation Equality movement — a multi-partner advocacy and action platform for bold new gender equality impact.

Globally, more than 1.1 billion girls younger than 18 years of age are poised to take on the future. Investing in them — including their health, education and safety — allows them to build better lives and to create a more peaceful and prosperous world for us all.

Twenty-five years ago, some 30,000 women and men from nearly 200 countries arrived in Beijing, China, for the Fourth World Conference on Women, determined to recognise women’s rights as human rights. The conference culminated in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: the most comprehensive policy agenda for gender equality.

In the years following, women pressed this agenda forward, leading global movements on issues ranging from sexual and reproductive health rights to equal pay. Today, these movements have expanded. They are being organised by and for adolescent girls — girls from all walks of life who are boldly demanding action against discrimination, violence and poor learning opportunities.

In 2019, Unicef-supported programmes reached 5.7 million adolescent girls in 45 countries with prevention and care services related to ending child marriage. Eight and a half million people also participated in education, communication and awareness-raising activities.

In Pakistan, of the total population, 64% is below the age of 30 while 29% is between the ages of 15 and 29 years. This youth bulge is a major advantage for the country and girls are a sizeable part of it. They are talented and skillful but face multiple issues including discrimination in education, gender biases, sexual harassment, child labour, early marriage, social pressures, and rape and honour killings.

Unicef has been working with the Government of Pakistan for over 71 years to promote child rights in the country with a special focus on girls. We have come a long way as girls are getting more recognition as a potential force in the process of national development. However, we are far from creating enough opportunities for girls to develop and get their due share in the socio-economic development of the country.

Girls and women in Pakistan need role models projecting a positive portrayal of their strength and ability across all disciplines, occupations and intersections including gender, race and disability.

Last year, we celebrated the 30^th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. This year is the 30^th anniversary of Pakistan’s ratification of the CRC. The country was amongst the first to make a strong commitment towards ensuring the fundamental rights of the child. The International Day of the Girl Child is a strong reminder to that commitment and to review how far we have delivered for our children, especially girls, what was promised to them three decades ago.

Remarkable progress has been made as today, girl-led movements are tackling issues like climate change, child marriage, racial injustice, access to reproductive and sexual health education, skills and learning inequality, and mental health. Girls in Pakistan are definitely better placed than the past, however, a lot more needs to be done.

In the education sector, which receives less than 3% of the total GDP, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number — 22.8 million — of out-of-school children at the primary level. Girls are particularly affected.

Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status and geography are holding them back. In Balochistan, 75% of girls are out of school. Many of these are forced into child labour or early marriage.

While responding to the unprecedented circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic which has posed a challenge to children’s learning, we need to rebuild school systems better by addressing violence against girls in and around classrooms and on digital learning platforms. Girls are more likely to experience verbal and sexual harassment and abuse, while boys are most often subject to physical violence.

Unicef continues to emphasise that to advance girls’ rights in Pakistan, it is imperative to: promote and protect the rights of girls and increase awareness of their needs and potential; eliminate violence against girls; eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls in provision of services including health, nutrition, education, skills development, training and job opportunities; eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls; eliminate the economic exploitation of child labour and protect young girls at work; promote girls’ awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life; strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of girls.

In a world challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic where Pakistan is no exception, we must create opportunities for development by investing more in girls — a potent force that could contribute immensely to national development and take Pakistan forward.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2020.

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