WAF urges CM Murad Ali Shah to apply gendered lens in all relief initiatives

By Our Correspondent
April 05, 2020

Appreciating the Sindh government for taking timely measures to contain the coronavirus spread, the Women Action Forum (WAF) has demanded of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to apply a gendered lens in all relief initiatives.

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In a letter, the women rights body urges the CM prioritise women and other vulnerable groups for relief and distribution of resources “as often women and the girl-child are overlooked in the method of relief and resource distribution because of patriarchal biases which render females as less valued and powerless in households and societies at large”.

The letter reads: “Just over the last decade, Pakistan has suffered unprecedented large-scale natural disasters including, earthquakes and floods, and ten years of military conflict under the War on Terror (2004-2014). These have taken multiple human lives on a horrific scale, wiped out their resources and extracted an overall environmental and economic toll. Through the experience of working in relief and rehabilitation efforts, the WAF has flagged to our governments, how women and marginalised groups suffer the worst effects of crises but also, are deprived of relief and compensation projects simply because of their unequal or direct access to knowledge, power or patronage of the state and government programme.”

The WAF said in previous relief distributions, people with political affiliations were favoured for political benefit. “This unfairness must be avoided at all costs. Women’s teams from within the communities should be recruited for monitoring and accountability of all relief programmes,” said the WAF, while giving recommendations to the Sindh CM.

“Both internal and external grievance redressal and complaint mechanisms must be prioritised and strengthened in order to maintain transparency, accountability and equity across relief efforts,” it urged.

It also demanded that data must be gender-sensitive and include all women covering different demographics in all statistics. It also urged that women and members of religious minorities must be prioritised in all relief programmes but also encouraged to play roles as leaders in all relief management initiatives such as women police, women MPAs, women UCs, lady health workers, nurses, community-based workers, and those who work with local NGOs.

“Distribution of relief packages and social transfers should be awarded to women in households and the most vulnerable must be prioritised in such efforts including, but not limited to, women agricultural workers, women migrants, domestic workers, home-based workers, union council workers, indigenous women, landless women, single-mothers, older women, health and sanitary workers and those with disabilities,” the WAF recommended.

“Any women-related social services, including shelters, reproductive health services, hostels, lady health workers, basic/rural health units, union councils, that can be offered at this time (make-shift or with reduced hours) should be made functional and supply-chain obstacles removed as a priority.

All those working in the public sector must be given adequate personal protective gear that will reduce the risk they face and their duties must be scheduled according to a rotation system that mitigates their exposure (one-week duty and the second off),” it wrote in the letter.

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