ISLAMABAD: Being half of the country’s total population, the women need to be brought in to the mainstream of national life for any meaningful socio economic and human development to take place in the country, observes the Senate Standing Committee on Women Development, which visited the Women Welfare and Development Centre, being run by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education here on Wednesday. The Committee added that the Women strata has comparatively few opportunities of socio economic development and a large majority still leads a deplorable life devoid of all modern day facilities. Therefore, they have been unable to make any significant contribution towards the overall development of the country. This situation has to be changed in order to quicken our transition towards economic prosperity and improved quality of life for the people, said the Committee members.
The Committee particularly underlined the need to train women in marketable skills like cutting, sewing & stitching, dress designing, embroidery, knitting, cooking etc and to make arrangements for marketing the products without any involvement of the middle man who normally eats up most of the profit. ‘Our women are endowed with tremendous potential and there is only a need to channelize that potential for constructive pursuits’, it added. In this connection it observed that stalls may be provided in Sunday Bazars and other such places where women can sell their products without any hassle. It also urged the government and the Ministry of Social Welfare to make arrangements for providing training to women in areas like banking, record keeping, cash management in addition to house keeping and house budget making for achieving greater empowerment of women and enhancing their role in the national life.
The Senate Committee suggested a comprehensive and well thought out strategy to overcome the educational, social and economic backwardness of women and to enhance their competitiveness. It especially called for improving the lot of rural women who are mostly languishing in poverty and disease, unable to make most of life which is utterly depressed and marginalize. It also stressed the need for more strenuous efforts to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rates, which are one of the highest in the region. The Senate Body took strong exception to the report relating to burning of female schools in FATA and urged the leaders to give due rights to women including that of education.
Earlier, the Incharge WW & DC informed the Senate Committee that this centre was established under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Welfare in February 1995 to provide training facilities to deserving women/girls in sewing, cutting stitching etc and to enable the orphaned girls, widows and other women belonging to the middle and lower classes to earn their livelihood in a respectable manner. It runs various courses of three to six months durations in addition to one year diploma. Presently there are 26 staff members and 376 students. During the last 14 years, a total number of more than 12000 women/girls have benefited form this facility and learnt various skills. First Aid and Civil Defence is an integral part of their training. They are also running refresher courses for capacity building teachers. The marketing officer was also appointed recently to conduct independent survey of market to ensure better price for there products. The Chairperson of the Committee Senator Tahira Latif said that the Centre was doing a Yeoman Service to the women of this area as they are supporting their families. Some of them have even established their own business houses on a small scale and helping other women do the same. She urged that micro credits be provided to such women on reasonable markup rates and arrangements be made for value addition of the products being prepared by women in this centre so that it could fetch a better price. She also asked the ministry to establish more such centres and to upgrade present ones. Other members of the Committee also appreciated the useful work done by the Centre and endorsed its request for more funds. Later the Committee members visited various sections and commended the skills of the students and devotion and dedication of the teachers.—Agencies