Secretary Planning and Development Department, Ali Tahir Monday said that implementation of Gender Reform Action Plan is one of the major policy commitments of government of Punjab to uplift the status of womenfolk. He was speaking as a chief guest at a pre-budget seminar organised by the gender-mainstreaming unit of P&D and Home Department.
He said the aim of GRAP is to bring about such changes in the structure and processes of government that it promotes equity among men and women, and enables deliverance of rights and entitlements to women. He further said the programme envisages essential reforms including political participation, women employment, institutional restructuring, and policy and fiscal reforms.
Tahir said that implementation of gender reforms is faced with the age-old cultural and social taboos, which have restricted female participation in the social, cultural and economic sectors. Such tendencies are also visible in the public sector where lack of basic infrastructure facilities such as separate female toilets and rest areas are missing in most of the departments, he added.
Moreover, he said, number of females in public sector employment is also minimal, and more so if we take decision-making positions as a benchmark. He also said that all recommendations at the end of this seminar will be addressed positively in the planning process. The objectives of the seminar were to discuss the gender perspective of planning and budgetary process at the provincial level, highlight importance and need of gender sensitive budgeting at the provincial level and role of government officers in the process. The focus of the seminar was also to elicit recommendations from the participants of the seminar regarding the upcoming budget of provincial government 2011-12 from a gender perspective.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.