Media persons awarded to highlight real issues of women’s economic empowerment
Seven journalists from print and electronic media from across Pakistan have won awards from ILO for excellence in reporting on issues relating to labour and gender.
8 January 2014
The awards were given away by ILO for promoting gender responsive reporting at an event organised in Islamabad on January 8, 2014. The chief guest at the ceremony was Ms Sherry Rehman Pakistan's former Ambassador to the US, a political journalist and currently President of The Jinnah Institute. Also present at the event was Ms Moneeza Hashmi, President Commonwealth Broadcast Association and Mr Iqbal Khattak, Bureau Chief Daily Times Pakistan.
In the print media category Mr Aoun Sahi of The News on Sunday won the first prize. His article ‘Gender Disparities’ emphasized the importance of women being counted properly in labour inspections and other data collections. It also highlighted some of the major problems faced by women workers that does not only involve psychological or sexual harassment but also abuse of power and bullying, absence of transport facility, lack of child day care centres, no provisions of maternity leaves and low women’s membership in the trade unions. Muhammad Irfan Shaikh of Diyanat Daily won the second prize. His article is about the women labour working in the ‘Khajoor Market’ of Sukkhur who work longer hours compared to men for less salary due to extreme poverty. The third prize winner of the print media category, Ms Salma Soomro, wrote an article in Sindhi titled ‘Zindagi dukhann dhariyo jhol’ meaning ‘Sadness Defines Life’ which is a story of brick kiln women workers, who face gender discrimination and exploitation at work.
In the electronic media category Ms Nida Fatima Zaidi of PTV won the first prize with her 20 Minute documentary called ‘Bay samar’ meaning ‘unrewarded’. The documentary was aired on Labour Day, and focuses on the economic contribution of women, and the fact that it goes unrecognized and unrewarded. Ms Qurat-ul-Ain Hashmi won the second prize. Her news report, which was aired on Express News, is about 80 year old Fatima, who has been earning a living by selling animal liver on a roadside for the past 40 years.
Ms Rabia Noor of Express TV and Ms Rubab Hussain of Samaa TV jointly won the third prize. The documentary by Rubab’s entry was a 2 minute news report on a 10 year old girl child who left her studies to help earn a living for her family. The girl works at Pir Wadai truck adda in Rawalpindi and earns less than Rs.200 by cleaning used engine oil which otherwise goes to waste and then selling it . The joint prize winning story by Rabia Noor was a documentary aired on Women’s Day. Rethinking the definition of success, the story is about 70 year old Sardara Bibi working in a brick kiln factory. By any humane standards this is a tedious work at this age but her success lies in the fruit of her hard work.
The competition was arranged by Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment (GE4DE), a 5 year ILO project funded by the Canadian, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), that aims to build the capacity of over 5,000 women workers and entrepreneurs in Pakistan to become better professionals in the world of work.
The initiative has been able to train 673 journalists from 41 districts of Pakistan through 34 training programmes spread over the course of a year. Of these journalists, 207 represented TV medium, 29 the radio sector and 437 journalists represented newspapers and news agencies.
Through the training programme, ILO has endeavoured to improve the coverage of working women, bringing about a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of women in the world of work. As part of this programme, a multimedia training module and a guidebook for journalists was developed to facilitate improved understanding of concepts around issues lying at the interface of labour and gender.
The training programme was built around ILO standards and conventions to promote the Decent Work Agenda for women, trained a cadre of working journalists to highlight the link between good working conditions and environment for working women and their empowerment.
“While seeking to train and create opportunities for the disadvantaged men and women at the grassroots level, the project aims to engage with media to educate all stakeholders about empowerment of women in the world of work in Pakistan,” says Frida Khan, the National Project Coordinator GE4DE.
The project is particularly focusing on ILO Conventions 100 and 111 – which calls for equality of opportunities for all sexes, races and ethnicities and Pakistan has ratified both these Conventions.
A number of policy forums were also conducted as a part of this project which produced a national declaration by key media houses and civil society actors to actively promote the coverage of gender equality and decent work issues, indicating the wide support for this initiative.
To become advocates for gender equality and improved working conditions, the project emphasized training of journalists – from print, radio, television and online media – to orient them on the themes of gender equality and decent employment.
The training sought to equip reporters with professional techniques and resources to improve coverage and portrayal of working women in media. The project also oriented 320 students at five leading universities across Pakistan on the issue of decent work for women.
National Project Coordinator/Media Focal Person
ILO Islamabad
Email
Tel: 051-2276456-8
In the print media category Mr Aoun Sahi of The News on Sunday won the first prize. His article ‘Gender Disparities’ emphasized the importance of women being counted properly in labour inspections and other data collections. It also highlighted some of the major problems faced by women workers that does not only involve psychological or sexual harassment but also abuse of power and bullying, absence of transport facility, lack of child day care centres, no provisions of maternity leaves and low women’s membership in the trade unions. Muhammad Irfan Shaikh of Diyanat Daily won the second prize. His article is about the women labour working in the ‘Khajoor Market’ of Sukkhur who work longer hours compared to men for less salary due to extreme poverty. The third prize winner of the print media category, Ms Salma Soomro, wrote an article in Sindhi titled ‘Zindagi dukhann dhariyo jhol’ meaning ‘Sadness Defines Life’ which is a story of brick kiln women workers, who face gender discrimination and exploitation at work.
In the electronic media category Ms Nida Fatima Zaidi of PTV won the first prize with her 20 Minute documentary called ‘Bay samar’ meaning ‘unrewarded’. The documentary was aired on Labour Day, and focuses on the economic contribution of women, and the fact that it goes unrecognized and unrewarded. Ms Qurat-ul-Ain Hashmi won the second prize. Her news report, which was aired on Express News, is about 80 year old Fatima, who has been earning a living by selling animal liver on a roadside for the past 40 years.
Ms Rabia Noor of Express TV and Ms Rubab Hussain of Samaa TV jointly won the third prize. The documentary by Rubab’s entry was a 2 minute news report on a 10 year old girl child who left her studies to help earn a living for her family. The girl works at Pir Wadai truck adda in Rawalpindi and earns less than Rs.200 by cleaning used engine oil which otherwise goes to waste and then selling it . The joint prize winning story by Rabia Noor was a documentary aired on Women’s Day. Rethinking the definition of success, the story is about 70 year old Sardara Bibi working in a brick kiln factory. By any humane standards this is a tedious work at this age but her success lies in the fruit of her hard work.
The competition was arranged by Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment (GE4DE), a 5 year ILO project funded by the Canadian, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), that aims to build the capacity of over 5,000 women workers and entrepreneurs in Pakistan to become better professionals in the world of work.
The initiative has been able to train 673 journalists from 41 districts of Pakistan through 34 training programmes spread over the course of a year. Of these journalists, 207 represented TV medium, 29 the radio sector and 437 journalists represented newspapers and news agencies.
Through the training programme, ILO has endeavoured to improve the coverage of working women, bringing about a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of women in the world of work. As part of this programme, a multimedia training module and a guidebook for journalists was developed to facilitate improved understanding of concepts around issues lying at the interface of labour and gender.
The training programme was built around ILO standards and conventions to promote the Decent Work Agenda for women, trained a cadre of working journalists to highlight the link between good working conditions and environment for working women and their empowerment.
“While seeking to train and create opportunities for the disadvantaged men and women at the grassroots level, the project aims to engage with media to educate all stakeholders about empowerment of women in the world of work in Pakistan,” says Frida Khan, the National Project Coordinator GE4DE.
The project is particularly focusing on ILO Conventions 100 and 111 – which calls for equality of opportunities for all sexes, races and ethnicities and Pakistan has ratified both these Conventions.
A number of policy forums were also conducted as a part of this project which produced a national declaration by key media houses and civil society actors to actively promote the coverage of gender equality and decent work issues, indicating the wide support for this initiative.
To become advocates for gender equality and improved working conditions, the project emphasized training of journalists – from print, radio, television and online media – to orient them on the themes of gender equality and decent employment.
The training sought to equip reporters with professional techniques and resources to improve coverage and portrayal of working women in media. The project also oriented 320 students at five leading universities across Pakistan on the issue of decent work for women.
For further information please contact:
Ms Frida KhanNational Project Coordinator/Media Focal Person
ILO Islamabad
Tel: 051-2276456-8