International Rural Women’s Day moot concludes

Women’s health, education, financial inclusion, and political participation remained in focus

ISLAMABAD:

A three-day conference titled “15th Annual Rural Women Conference” was organised by PODA-Pakistan at Lok Virsa to mark International Rural Women’s Day where rural women from 123 districts represented their regions has concluded today.

The conference concluded by passing a unanimously agreed resolution highlighting rural women’s issues at the grassroots level to ensure their constitutional rights.

The highlight of the conference was where women demanded that a minimum age of at least 18 years should be set for marriage of young girls. They urged that the age limits should be for all beyond race, caste, ethnicity or creed.

The resolution focused mainly on the areas of health, education, women’s financial inclusion, climate change, access to basic social services, political participation and women’s constitutional and citizenship rights while highlighting the need to adhere and ensure the principle of equal representation of rural women at all levels, policy, planning and implementation.

The conference participants belonging from all four provinces and regions of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan urged the provincial governments to adopt policies based on the concept of gender equality which includes all segments of the society from person-with-disabilities, transgender persons, minorities, different ethnicities and indigenous communities to allocate resources for their development, while at the same time recognising their contributions in the national development. The conference participants reiterated their demand to recognize rural women as “farmers” so that they could equally benefit from the government policies like men.

On this occasion, Deputy Head of European Union Delegation Thomas Seiler said this conference is a “Platform where you can make your voices heard collectively to tackle problems and challenges”. He said that European Union Delegation to Pakistan has been working closely with the government and other donors in assessing the need for rebuilding the flood-hit areas and supporting future recovery efforts.

Thomas Seiler termed the conference as an effective drive in connecting women’s demands for ensuring women’s equal participation in political processes. Lauding the efforts of PODA, Provincial Ombudsperson Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace, Farkhanda Naz, urged to extend the harassment act to protect women working in the informal sector.

Similarly, Chairperson Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, Nuzhat Shirin, also spoke on the occasion terming the conference a unique place for nurturing “a great sense of sisterhood” among women which was itself a great accomplishment to celebrate.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2022.