Alvi stresses financial inclusion of women

The key factors that can contribute to the empowerment of women in the society are digital and financial inclusion, a safe environment and good health, said President Dr Arif Alvi.

Addressing the launch ceremony of the National Gender Data Portal on Thursday, Alvi said data collection was direly needed for policy formulation and decision making.   

Developed by the National Council on Status of Women and the UN Women, the interactive portal provides statistics and knowledge on indicators related to women and supports the government to report on international obligations on gender.         

“There can be no women empowerment sans right of inheritance and financial inclusion,” he said.

The president told the gathering that the government was bracing up to disburse cash assistance to women through their bank accounts which would provide them better control over their money besides increasing their value in the family. 

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He stressed upon the government and the society, including trade chambers, to create employment opportunities for educated women and impart skills training to the illiterate ones to enable them to earn by either selling merchandise in the market or through e-commerce platforms.

Reiterating the importance of data, the president disagreed with Pakistan’s ranking of gender gap. He further called to initiate remedial measures for to boost inclusion and empowerment of women. The president also talked about the government’s pro-women initiatives such as easy loans from banks.

On the occasion, National Commission on Status of Women Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar also disagreed with the country’s international ranking on gender gap and hoped that the portal would help provide correct data to report the correct situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2021.

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