Policy on agrarian women urged

LAHORE: Speakers at a dialogue emphasised on the development of a systematic mechanism for policymaking and legislation to protect the rights of the agrarian women.

Aurat Foundation organised a dialogue with Members of Punjab Assembly at a hotel here Tuesday. According to a press release, the panel included Ms Mehnaz Rafi – women rights activist, Muhammad Shahid and Zaigham from Labour Department, Safdar Abbas - Social Welfare Department, Additional Secretary Agriculture Department and representatives of Law and Women Development departments of the Punjab government.

The panellists discussed that there was no existence of laws and policies for agrarian women while they were playing their role in the agriculture production which was the backbone of the economy of Pakistan. They emphasised on the development of a systematic mechanism for policymaking and legislation to protect the rights of these women. It was recommended that there was need to collect gender disaggregated data to address the gender disparity faced by these women.