Speakers demand equal employment opportunities for women

Pakistan Workers Federation held the national conference of women trade union representatives and workers here on Tuesday to commemorate the International Women Day. The participants vowed to strengthen the struggle for promotion of gender equality and elimination of discrimination against women and demanded access to income generation capacities, meaningful education and training facilities for women in the country.
The conference was presided over by chairperson women wing of Pakistan Workers Federation Huma Aziz and women rights activists Tasneem Akhtar, Shabana, Mussarrat, Saima, Zahida, Amira Khurram.
Addressing the conference, PWF president Chaudhry Talib Nawaz said that almost 78 percent girls drop out from schools at primary level due to lack of access to meaningful education and poverty of their families. The employment of women in Pakistan is the lowest in South Asia as compared to other countries of the region.
He said the feudal system prevailing in the rural areas is responsible for miseries and poverty of the women. The lack of effective implementation of labour laws at work places has been adding fuel to the fire. Osama Tariq, deputy secretary general of the Federation said that women are still subjected to exploitation in the forms of bonded and domestic workers. Women are denied fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining at work place.
He assured the women workers that PWF stood for their just struggle for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The conference through a resolution urged the government to provide more comprehensive free education and training facilities for each child. The conference demanded abolition of double education system one for the rich and the other for the poor.
The resolution called upon the government to check price hike of essential commodities specially food items and curtail unemployment in the country. The conference demanded employment opportunities for the women and equal pay for equal work and effective enforcement of labour laws. The conference also elimination child abuse and bonded labour as well as outdated customs of Jahaiz and dowry in order to safe poor families from social deprivation.