'Punjab government making efforts to empower women'

Baidarie Sialkot with the support provided by UN WOMEN country office Islamabad organized a ceremony to celebrate "International Women's Day-2018" here last evening with the aim to advocate with the government functionaries to maximize measures for Increased Access of Women to Economic Growth Opportunities. The theme of celebrations was "Time is now: Rural and Urban activists transforming women's lives".
The ceremony which was organized as a component of advocacy drive of UN WOMEN funded project "Empowerment of women garment workers in Sialkot" was attended by UN WOMEN, support agencies, legislators, academia, govt. functionaries, political and social activists, trade bodies, corporate sector, women entrepreneurs, civil society organizations, women workers, community influential and media.
Ms. Hoorya Syedah, Programme Officer UN WOMEN Punjab while addressing the ceremony said that women are facing multiple problems which are hindering the process of their growth and development. UN WOMEN is making efforts to overcome all of these difficulties. She appreciated the efforts made by the Government of Punjab to empower women. She emphasized that achieving gender equality in providing of access to opportunities for economic growth is our main goal.
Addressing the session, Professor Arshad Mehmood Mirza Executive Director Baidarie said that empowerment of women is integrally associated with the equitable inclusion of women in economic, social and political spheres of mainstream life. He said that women workers who are putting in the best of their potentials in the formal and informal sectors of economy are in fact injecting monetary inputs worth billions of dollars into the national GDP.
This invaluable contribution must be acknowledged and appreciated. Professor Mirza said that Pakistani society is not giving required level of respect and honor to the women. Every woman who steps out of the house to go to her workplace or to satisfy some household needs is invariably subjected to harassment. Not only are the adults, minor girls subjected to inhuman treatment. No day goes when news surface to indicate sexual assault leading to assassination of our daughters. These criminal trends speak volumes of the tendencies of our directionless youth.
All of it needs seriously to be pondered upon for developing a workable plan to address the challenges and threats to our women & girls. He said that Sialkot is generally considered to be a developed area but it is a pity that according to the assessments by UNDP almost 2 million women do not have CNICs.