National Guidelines in Pakistan - Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education

National Policy for Development and Empowerment of Women

The goal of this plan is:

"Empowerment of Pakistani women, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, or other consideration for the realization of their full potential in all spheres of life, especially social, economic, personal and political and in keeping with our Islamic way of life."

It "Aims and Objectives" are:

a. To remove inequities and imbalances in all sectors of socio-economic development and to ensure women's equal access to all development benefits and social services.

b. To ensure the participation of women as equal partners in national development and decision-making processes in the community and society.

c. To ensure the full participation of women in all political processes and to enhance women's representation in all elective bodies.

d. To safeguard and ensure the protection of women's human rights including economic, legal, political and social rights, especially the rights of minority women, rural and poor women, girls and women with disabilities, elderly women and women in vulnerable circumstances and situations.

e. To provide women and girls access to quality health care services and all other pre-requisites to enjoying full health, including reproductive and mental health.

f. To expeditiously and substantially enhance women's literacy rates, improve attainment levels of girls and women at all levels of education (both academic and professional) to reduce the gender gap, and to reorient existing curricula by making them gender sensitive.

g. To provide equality of opportunity and to create space for women to realize their full potential.

Important parts of the plan focussing on the world of work, may be summarised as follows:

• "Guiding Principles" include non-discrimination and gender equity at all levels, priority to the poorest of the poor, recognition of the value of women's work and their contribution in all spheres of life and as agents of change in economic, social political processes.
• "Key Policy Measures" include institutionalisation of gender into all sectors of development, as well as the private sector, and mainstreaming gender issues through integration into all sectors of national development.
• A key action area is education and includes an emphasis on primary school enrollment and on secondary schooling for girls through scholarships and subsidies for girls' education to low income households, revision of curricula and text books at all educational levels for gender sensitization and provision of vocational and skills training, particularly in Information Technology.
• "Law and Access to Justice" is another target area and key policy measures to be undertaken include eliminating negative customary practices by increasing knowledge of women's existing rights to access judicial relief and redress; ensuring effective implementation and the enforcement of existing rights; removing discrimination through legal reforms; and providing legal aid, assistance and counselling. To this end the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Pakistan Law Commission, and the National Commission on the Status of Women are to review all laws and formulate proposals for law reform.
• The policy includes steps to enhance the role of the media as a means of information, education and communication on women's issues and for promoting the positive portrayal of women in all media.
• In addition, steps are to be taken to ensure the access of poor rural women to land, agricultural and livestock extension services and support mechanisms and facilities; providing women easy access to micro-credit, especially through the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Rural Support Programmes (RSPs), First Women Bank (FWB), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the Khushali Bank.
• Women, particularly in general and female headed households, women bread earners, and women with disability, are also to have priority in accessing credit on soft terms from FWB and the Khushali Banks and other financial institutions for setting up their business, for buying properties, and for house building.
• Actions under the heading "Remunerated Work" include increasing women's capacity to earn by improving access to sources of livelihood, particularly in agriculture and livestock production; providing equal opportunities for women in remunerated employment which also accommodate women-oriented work patterns; providing special courses for women in entrepreneurial skills to assist and engage them to establish their own small-scale enterprises; and, improving facilities for the education, training and skills development for women, to enter and re-enter the labour force, including special arrangements, as specified in the draft Labour Policy for women relatives of workers.
• In addition appropriate legislation must be developed, including:
• measures to give effect to ILO Convention 100 ratified by Pakistan in 2001 by enacting a law to ensure equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value.
• measures to make work places conducive for women workers so they can work without fear of discrimination and harassment.
• laws and guidelines to provide protection against sexual harassment at the workplace.
• Action for "Women in the Rural Economy and Informal Sector" is specifically mentioned and includes recognizing, counting and making visible women's real economic contribution and productivity in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy in national economic indicators. Women working in the rural economy and the informal sector are to be formally recognised and measures are to be taken to ensure healthy and safe conditions of work.
• The policy also calls for a number of urgent measures relating to sustainable development focussing on women and the environment.
• Action for the political empowerment of women includes:
• effective implementation of the existing measures that require the reservation of 33% seats in the local councils on the basis of joint and direct elections and more than twice the number of reserved seats for women at the national and provincial levels;
• removing hurdles to women's political participation,
• strengthening women in political decision making positions by providing training, supervision, support, defining their authority and through engaging male colleagues in the development of gender equality in decision-making;
• mandating the inclusion of women through merit in all decision-making bodies of the executive and judicial organs of the state at the federal, provincial and local/district levels, and;
• taking measures to remove obstacles in women's access to power decision-making in the family, community and society.

The Ministry of Women Development Responsibility has responsibility for implementation of the policy and is required to brief Cabinet on progress of implementation of policy and facilitate gender sensitization and training programmes for all other Ministries. Women Development Departments (WDDs) at provincial & district levels, are required to do the same. The Ministry has linkages with other line ministries at Federal level through designated focal points. At the provincial and district levels, the Ministry will coordinate implementation through its departments and through designated focal points of other line departments including local government. The focal Ministry and focal departments, the MOWD and the WDDs will be the primary monitoring, review & coordinating bodies, in consultation with the Bureau for Statistics.

National Plan of Action

The National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women under the Beijing Platform (NPA) was adopted as a working document in August 1998 by the President of Pakistan. Emphasis was put on:

• poverty of women;
• issues regarding the girl-child;
• health;
• education;
• violence against women; and,
• the economic, political and social empowerment of women.

The Ministry of Women's Development is responsible for the implementation of the NPA as well as coordinating, monitoring and evaluating progress in the advancement of women. The NPA directs actions to advance gender equality according to the strategic objectives set out under the Beijing Platform for Action. Important measures for the world of work include:

a. Adopting macro and micro-economic policies and sectoral policies.

b. Developing gender sensitive economic growth indicators.

c. Mainstreaming women in the productive sectors and ensure their equitable participation.

d. Cushioning against the negative aspects of the structural adjustment package on women.

e. Reviewing the impact of existing policies, labour laws, factories on women workers, identify gender-biassed rules and regulations and suggesting modifications. This includes areas such as private and public, formal and informal sectors employing women.

f. Increasing women's access to ownership, control and management of productive assets e.g. land, and formal credit.

g. Creating awareness of legal and constitutional rights of women, related to land and asset ownership and legislation for equitable distribution of productive assets.

h. Training women in financial and land management.

i. Adopting affirmative action in recruitment of women.

j. Eliminating the gender gap in access to education by actions concering statistics, training female trainers and a number of institutional and women specific positve actions.

k. Increasing women's access to scientific, technical and vocational education and linking training with the employment needs of women.

l. Ensuring assessment of the benchmark data for projection of women''s contribution to the national economy.