Govt to table bill on domestic violence against women

PESHAWAR: Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Social Welfare, Special Education and Women Empowerment Dr Mehr Taj Roghani said on Tuesday that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government was going to table a bill on domestic violence against women in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
“The draft bill on domestic violence against women has been made after removing reservations of religious parties’ lawmakers. The domestic working women would get justice and be able to get their due rights through the law,” she said while addressing the Women Workers Convention titled “Celebrating Working Women Awards.”
The event was organised by Aware Girls together with Gender Equality Programme and Aurat Foundation in collaboration with USAID. She said there were many difficulties preparing the draft bill for domestic violence against women as the religious parties had raised objections that the law was against Islamic teachings.
“We have addressed the reservations and the bill would soon be tabled in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly,” she added. The special assistant said the government was going to appoint a retired woman judge as ombudsperson as it had formed a six-member selection committee under the chief secretary.
About implementation of minimum wage and establishment of “Day Care Centres” at workplaces, she promised to take up the matter with the labour minister for its implementation and establishment of Day Care Centres.
Provincial Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Neelum Toru said the commission was working to help make women-related laws. She said the commission would soon table two laws on women rights in the provincial assembly.
Aware Girls head Saba Ismail said her organisation was working to empower women and promote gender equality. She maintained that working women were facing a host of problems including sexual harassment at workplace, non-availability of maternity leave and Day Care Centres at workplaces.
Saba Ismail said the organisation trained about 200 domestic and home-based working women about their rights and imparted training to them. She also shared the findings of a survey conducted by her organisation about the working conditions of women workers in factories.
Quoting the survey, she said that working women spent 2.6 percent of the salaries on own needs, seven percent were subjected to physical violence and were going underpaid. Up to 98 percent women didn’t know about their rights and labour laws. She said 85 percent couldn’t avail maternity leave while there was no Day Care Centre at the workplace.
Awards were distributed among the working women for getting positions in trainings on vocational skills. Women Chamber of Commerce Vice President Iqbal Bano, Da Hawwa Lur a non-government organisation chairperson Khurshid Bano, Sana Ijaz, a youth activist
and founder of Gandhara Centre for Peace and Education and others also spoke on the occasion.