World Population Day today: Call to utilise media for women empowerment

LAHORE:This year's World Population Day, being commemorated on Tuesday (today), emphasises on women empowerment that resonates in the local context where 79 percent women are not part of the workforce in Pakistan.

This year's theme, "Unleashing the Power of Gender Equality: Uplifting the Voices of Women and Girls to Unlock Our World's Infinite Possibilities," strikes a profound chord in the context of Pakistan where women empowerment has remained a significant challenge due to low literacy rate and limited female participation in the workforce. "At least 48% of women in Pakistan are illiterate, 79% are not part of the labour force and only 10% can make independent decisions about their own health, which runs counter to the objective of women empowerment as the stepping stone in achieving the elusive goal of sustainable population growth in Pakistan," reveals a shocking report of the Population Council during a media coalition meeting held to mark World Population Day.

The coalition highlights the cross sectoral impact of rapid population growth periodically to raise awareness and hold governments accountable for improving the well-being of the people. Senior Project Officer at the Population Council Umm-e-Kalsoom presented the data on women’s education, health and labour force participation. She stressed the media to raise awareness on these issues through their news stories. She said, “The media should highlight the issues to remove all forms of discrimination against girls, in terms of diet, education and healthcare. Girls should be treated as equal as boys and must be educated to plan their families according to their resources”. Speaking about challenges of women empowerment in Pakistan, Social & Public Policy Advisor (Gender and Women Empowerment) Fauzia Yazdani said, “One of the most important ways to enhance women's rights is to increase their access to education and employment. When women are educated and employed, they are more likely to be able to make their own choices about their lives and contribute to the economic development of the country.

Dr Ali Mir, the Senior Director Programs, Population Council said, “Pakistan ranks amongst the lower rank of the Global Gender Gap Index 2022. Pakistan's gender gap is particularly wide in the areas of economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment. Participants of the meeting pledged to use media as an effective tool in promotion of women empowerment to ensure girls can exercise their rights and have choices to be able to balance their families’ resources and family size in order to reach their full potential. They also agreed to play a positive role in increasing access to reproductive health information and services to married couples in Pakistan as media campaigns could impress upon the governments to ensure availability of contraceptive and trained staff at all health outlets.