Islamabad :Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training and National Heritage Shafqat Mehmood on Thursday said that one of the main barriers women face in their path to empowerment is denial to their inheritance.
He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of three-day annual Rural Women Conference organised by PODA at Lok Virsa.
All the speakers were of the view that this is high time to recognize contributions of rural women who are the backbone of the agriculture sector that makes the significant portion of GDP. The 3-Day Conference concluded on Thursday, on presentation and adaptation of conference resolution.
“Women’s right to inheritance is crucial in determining and defining their social status in the society. Believing that women’s role is significant in the development and progress of our country, our government is all set for uplifting their status legally, socially and economically”, he added. Sameena Nazir, President-PODA Pakistan said that we need to have effective and efficient legal mechanisms to have these laws implemented to address real issues and challenges faced by women for their real development.
Highlighting the fundamental points of the resolution of the 12th Annual Rural Women Conference, Sameena Nazir urged to bring legal changes in the formal definition of the “formal labour force” to include women farmers and workers in agriculture, livestock, dairy, fisheries, forestry, and related sectors of the rural economy. Other highlights of the resolutions were training of surveyors conducting surveys for Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on how to collect sex-disaggregated data, and how to include rural agricultural women's work and productivity in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR); Revised data of PBS should be communicated widely; one acre of land be given to women farmers for agriculture; and most importantly rural women's access to loans and information technology to utilize environmentally sustainable sources of power and energy, e.g. solar, wind, and biogas (which also yields organic fertilizer for farming) need to be enhanced.
Sameena Nazir was of the view that economic independence is a prerequisite and a guarantee for women empowerment for which all stakeholders need to join hands to bring forward women entrepreneurs on the forefront to utilize their potential fully. Anne Marchal, Deputy Head of European Mission Delegation to Pakistan appreciated PODA's efforts to enhance environment friendly initiatives and for discouraging plastic bags.