Punjab Gender Parity Report key findings discussed

LAHORE:Punjab Commission on the Status of Women held a dissemination workshop here Wednesday to discuss the key findings of the Punjab Gender Parity Report (PGPR) 2019 & 2020.

The report is the fourth in its series and was compiled amidst COVID-19 restrictions to provide an update on key women-related indicators in six thematic areas across 36 districts in Punjab. PGPR presents gender disaggregated data analysis collected from over 1,000 public offices, against more than 200 indicators across demographics, governance, health, education, economic participation and opportunities, justice and special initiatives introduced by the Punjab government.

This workshop aimed to disseminate findings of the report to key public sector and civil society stakeholders, and obtain their feedback and recommendations based on data, to realise improvement in women’s lives. In addition, public sector officials present were consulted in order to realise gender-sensitive policy planning and budgeting across all sectors in the province.

The latest report provided a comparative analysis using figures from the 2018 Gender Parity Report to capture an accurate picture of trends in women’s status across the province. Projections based on the 2017 Population and Housing Census revealed that Punjab is the most populous province with 117 million people in 2020, comprising 51% men, 49% women and 0.006% transgender persons. The population falls predominantly within the age bracket of 20-49 years. Around 4.5 million (51%) men and 4.2 million (49%) women were issued CNICs in 2020. CNICs issued to transgender persons decreased by 84% from 2017 to 2020; 43 transgender persons were issued CNICs in Punjab in 2020. Early childbearing age decreased by 2.6% between 2014 and 2017-18. The number of girl child birth registrations decreased by 31.5%. The report stated that female voter registration increased by 10% between 2017 and 2018. The report finds that in Punjab, male life expectancy has risen 67.7 years in 2016 to 69.5 years in 2020 and female life expectancy increased from 66.9 years in 2016 to 68.3 years in 2020. Between 2018 and 2020 in Punjab, the total fertility rate decreased from 2.8 to 2.5. The number of hospitals was increased by 5.7% between 2015 and 2019.

Over the last five years, a slight improvement (3%) was recorded in literacy rate of women, from 54% in 2015-2016 to 57% in 2018-2019; however, literacy rate of men is higher at 73%. Overall, girls’ schools were found to have more basic facilities than boys’ schools. The gender gap in net enrolment of boys and girls decreased from 4% in 2014-15 to 1% in 2018-2019. The report found that male Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) remained similar over the last three labour force surveys while female LFPR consistently decreased from 28.5% in 2013-14, to 27.8% in 2014-15 and 26.5% in 2017-18. Punjab’s female LFPR is, however, higher than the national average of 20.1%. Rural female LFPR at 34.3% is considerably higher than urban female LFPR at 13.6%. Between 2018 and 2020 in Punjab, male and female landowners increased by 6.2% and 6.8%, respectively. From 2018 to 2020, the number of male beneficiaries decreased by 23.5% while the number of female beneficiaries has increased by 2.1%.

The report points out that the number of reported cases of violence against women (including murder, attempted murder, rape, gang rape, honour killings, acid burning, beating, vani, custodial rape and hurt) increased by 0.96% between 2018 and 2020 with rape reported most often, burning and vani reported least often.

Between 2019 and 2020, reported cases of rape decreased by 2.8%, acid burning decreased by 24% and honour killings increased by 20%. It was reported that of all VAW cases decided in Punjab in 2020, only 5.4% resulted in convictions. The number of help desks for women in police stations across Punjab was increased by 21.9% between 2018 and 2020.