PAKISTAN: Government Urged to Take Steps for Reducing Gender Gap

Civil society has called upon the government to take special measures for reducing gender gaps as are revealed in national and international reports, particularly in the area of education and health sectors.

In a statement issued on the occasion of National Women's Day, the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) has urged the legislators and policy-makers to allocate more resources and further vow the commitment to address gender disparities in key human development areas to pursue national women's development agenda.

The statement mentions that the literacy rate of women in the country is 42 per cent and only 52 per cent of girls complete primary level education. Similarly 25 per cent girls reach the secondary level whereas only 4.2 per cent are enrolled for higher level education.

It says that primary enrolment rate for female in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa and Baluchistan is 41 per cent and 32 per cent respectively despite government special initiatives to meet the Midterm and Millennium Development targets for 100 per cent primary enrolment till 2015.

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

Women access to professional health services is 35 per cent and maternal mortality figures of 276 in 100,000 live births explicitly marks that women are denied to health rights. Gender related indicators are expected to further deteriorate by recent flood and poverty being arousing out of war against terrorism and internal displacement in conflict areas.

It points out that dismal state of women attributes to many factors mainly poor governance, less expenditure, negligence to women problems and gender inequalities persistent in our society. “Women vulnerability further induces violence against them and restricts their social well being and participation in better economic activities. As 71 per cent women are engaged in informal economy of country without recognition on national scenario and decent monetary incentives.

It says that Pakistan's position is relatively weak in contrast to other regional countries on account of public spending in health and education sectors that have resulted into lower performance on gender based indicators in these sectors. Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives recommends government to integrate gender equity perspective in health and education policies and to formulate national standards to reduce gender imbalance in policies and resource allocation.