A girl is a mother’s pride a father’s deep adoration what is the difference of importance So undue? For a girl, the mutuality of parentage eschew”
Gender discrimination is widely debated issue, especially in Pakistan. This issue affected our economic growth. Even though government has made some laws but making laws is not enough. We should bring them to practice. The NGO’S and other social organizations, they are working on national and international level should make their best efforts in this regard.
Discrimination among women starts from their childhood. They are not allowed to play with boys though they are helpful for their mental and physical growth. Sexual harassment including rape is one of the most common crimes in Pakistan. The human rights commission has stated that after every three hours a rape is occur. The Islamic law Hadood (limits) ordinance has appealed against the provision of Pakistan Islamic code related to rape cases. This law requires the evidence of four male Muslims in order to five punishments to accused person; otherwise raped women cannot testify that the crime is committed against her. In these cases about 50% women in Pakistan jails and are waiting for their fate.
Discrimination in Pakistan is mostly done based on gender. .especially the females are discriminated due to our socio-culture problems. In our country, especially in NWFP, Baluchistan, Sindh and our rural Punjab discrimination rate is very high. In these area women are killed on honour. (which is known as “karo-kari” in Sindh),A woman who is perceived as being “disobedient” to her husband or the husband’s family may also fall victim to an honour killing, or may be badly battered, burned by fire, or disfigured by acid attacks. Women are not permitted to go to market in order to purchase daily use product. They have no right to get education; even they have not given the right to caste vote. This narrow minded approach has affected the mindsets of women so badly in such areas that they just kept intact in house. Early marriages to old and mature men are also one example of gender discrimination in Pakistan. The women are considered to born only for the sake of marriage and later controlling and upbringing the family.
In our country, Pakistan very difficult to survive for a women. Due to discrimination they have not given priority to get jobs. If she gets the job chances of her promotion to a higher position are very low as compared to male. At the work place they do not get the equal rights as a male has. In Pakistan laws are made but not implemented Equal employment opportunity describes that there should be no discrimination based on gender, race etc. but unfortunately, this law is violated in most of the organizations in Pakistan.
In other provinces like sindh, marriage with Quran is common practice although it is illegal, still it’s happen there. Women are forced to live without marrying throughout their life. This is mostly done to grab the property of sisters and daughters or to keep to keep the property from division or going outside the family. Women are not given properly right to get their share from property. As in QURAN it is mentioned.
Quotation from ‘Unveiling Islam’,
“In apportioning inheritance, a woman should receive half of what a man receives;” (Surah 4:11)
Similarly women in Pakistan are 28% of the total labour force and they generate 40% of the production, but in Pakistan female workers are given a very less pay as compared to males. Similarly women are not provided proper health facilities in rural areas although 70% of the population of our country belongs to rural areas. In Pakistan, as family system is patriarchal so they have always to compromise in all matters of life with the decisions taken by male members.
Women in USA UK and European countries are provided proper health education and employment opportunities. Research conducted in USA, according to this research, females working in America media receive almost half salary for the same amount of work as compared to men. Through providing equal employment opportunities, they are not only contributing to their society, but also positively affecting their economies.
In Pakistan women participation in politics is not encourages by society.
If we want to see our country developed, we need to resolve all social issues regarding gender discrimination. One thing should remember that ALLAH has created different physical characteristic of both genders, but has given equal mental capacity to both men and women.
First,Economic empowerment is thus the key to eliminating gender discrimination in society. Designing a gender-responsive employment promotion policy is the need of the hour. The wasteful discrimination that blights the developmental potential of our country needs to be removed to spur economic growth and development.There are multiple ways to improve gender balance in the country which will enhance the non-traditional security and for reducing gender discrimination against females and providing them equal chances at the work place and in the society. First, the constitution of the Pakistan guarantees equal rights to all its citizens and so many laws guarantee equal chances of employment to both sexes; but neither government nor private organizations are acting upon those laws. Therefore a committee comprising of Judges, Representative of Ministry of Women Development, Media, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), should be constituted to inspect and investigate the matters of gender discrimination in work force.
Second, Government through media must start a mass awareness campaign on gender discrimination in employment. Especially the female employees must be informed about their rights and privileges. Third, NGOs should also come forward and highlight the cases of gender discrimination and help and support the victimized female employees in getting justice. Fourth, government should compel both public and private organizations to prepare annual reports regarding their human resource development. In that report they show how many male and female employees were appointed in the last year, what is the proportion of male and female employees in their total employment and government must appoint the females in each organization with the right proportion of their availability in the labor market and thus correct the past number mistake in employment. Fifth, there is a need to invest more and more on female education because they are more than half of population in the country, and effort should be made by the government for entering more female in management and decision making posts in employment.
The main question arises who is responsible for this gender discrimination, our government orwe.
Misbah Hayat Bhatti (Misbahhayat567@gmail.com)
Muhammad Hasnat Bhatti (Hasnat786@live.com)
