Call to make women aware of land inheritance

LAHORE

The research studies on ‘Legal Reforms on Land Inheritance 2015 – Impacts on Women’ and ‘Sheltering Women from Harm – Darul Amaan of Punjab 2016’ were launched here by Punjab Commission on Status of Women (PCSW) on Tuesday.

The researches were compiled to encourage generating information, analysis and studies as well as to maintain a database relating to women and gender issues in Punjab. The data has been provided by all relevant departments of the Punjab government and the essential verification has been done by PCSW team.

Women Development Department Secretary Bushra Aman, Adviser to CM on Law & Order Salman Sufi, DG Planning & Evaluation, Tauseef Khatana, Sr Institutional Development Specialist the Urban Unit Adeel Shafqat, Farida Shaheed from Shirkat Gah and Fouzia Viqar Chairperson PCSW spoke on the occasion while a number of participants from civil society, academia, NGOs, government departments, Darul Amaan, lawyers community and media attended the launch.

The speakers stressed on the need to raise awareness among women in Punjab regarding common malpractices related to land inheritance through long-term social change campaigns in order to empower them.

“Punjab Land Revenue Act amended in 2012 and 2015 will help to safeguard women’s rights in matters of inheritance and land ownership.

The need of the hour is to ensure that Darul Amaan across the province are run by women in order to provide a comparatively secure environment for the women residents therein”, said Bushra Aman. Till date only 23 Darul Amaan have female wardens and rest are run by men which creates complications for women in distress.

“With patronage and interest of the Punjab CM, we have been able to make periodic revisions to improve provision and monitoring of staff in Darul Amaan across Punjab.

The major challenge lies in effective implementation of our policies and rules and for that all departments and stakeholders need to work in close collaboration. These research studies will go a long way in making recommendations based on globally accepted best practices,” said Punjab Minister for Women Development Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din while talking to media.

Tauseef Khatana from Urban Unit said, “The Urban Unit is proud to partner in the launch of research studies as we staunchly believe in and advocate for empowerment of women in Pakistan. Future research in these areas must map the complete business process of transfer and suggest the improvement wherever required”.

Chairperson PCSW Fouzia Viqar thanked the Punjab government for being a support in compiling the researches. She said that research launch was a step towards materialisation of goal of women empowerment in Punjab.