Women's empowerment programme launched in Sialkot

Baidarie Sialkot with the support of National Endowment for Democracy has begun implementation of the project titled "Women's Political Empowerment Programme in Sialkot (Punjab) Pakistan". The initiative aims at sensitizing and mobilizing the volunteers and respective communities at forty (40) selected locations across all the four tehsils in Sialkot district by improving their knowledge, information and awareness for pragmatically advancing the process of women's political empowerment on sustainable basis.
On the basis of redefined right based orientation and training the selected volunteers will perform a catalytic role to make women in their respective localities active and dynamic partners of mainstream democratic electoral process. The trained volunteers will motivate the men in their respective 40 locations to let the women be active part of the mainstream electoral process and mobilize women to take bold and daring political initiatives i.e. casting their votes after evaluating the suitability of the contestants and their party manifestoes/programmes and in pursuance of their own liking and choosing and become active part of the mainstream electioneering process.
The selected women and girls having interest, potential and track record of performance will be adequately trained to act as election/polling agents so that election process may move forward smoothly without any malpractices. All of the trained volunteers and women activists will run campaign in their respective localities to increase women voters' turn out by twenty (20%) percent against a benchmark of 40% in May 2013 to a level of 60% percent of women voters turn out in general elections due to be held on July 25.
At the impact level, successful implementation of the project in a time span of 12 months is expected to evolve a measurable, describable and replicable model of women's political empowerment to display that meticulously designed initiatives can make positive difference in promoting democratic norms, values & traditions and fostering a culture of respect of women's democratic rights - the direct contributories towards achievement of the targets set in the Beijing Platform for Action, the CEDAW and Pakistan's constitutional requireme.