In her message on the occasion of International Rural Women's Day being commemorated throughout the globe under the auspicious of United Nations on October 15, she asked the government to allocate required funds for establishment of schools for females in the rural women.
The Speaker said women in rural socio-cultural panorama were confined to household cores and laborious work in the fields and do not have access to education and added rural women were one of the most vulnerable and marginalized segments of the society despite their significant role in the rural economy.
She said that they were also subject to violence, economic exploitation and lack of basic healthcare.
Fehmida Mirza said that rural women comprise a major chunk of the population and play a significant role in agriculture sector and rural development but their contributions were not recognized at any level.
She said with the advent of latest technology in the agriculture sector, the involvement of women had not been decreased and still have to perform extensive agriculture work.
She underlined the need for officially reorganization of women participation in national economy and asked the government to devise policies for the betterment of women folk in the country and to ensure their rights.
She said women and children were most vulnerable in natural disasters and calamities and added that rural women in Sindh were currently n great miseries due to havoc played by the recent unprecedented floods in different parts of the province.
She said that majority of women in the rural areas have been displaced and have lost everything. She stressed the need for provision of shelters, livelihood and medical assistance to rural women in affected areas on priority basis.
The Speaker also asked the government to extend SME network to rural areas where enterprising rural women could have excess to credit facilities to make them self-sustaining and economically empowered.
She stressed the need to establish training and display centers at Tehsil level for rural women artisans so that they could get appropriate proceeds for their crafts and would also eliminate the role of middlemen who economically exploit rural women.
She called upon the Banking Sector to provide loans to rural women so that they could better contribute in national development.
Dr Fehmida Mirza said it was the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to empower women so that they could better contribute in the national development, adding that to accomplish the vision of Shaheed leader the government has introduced several schemes for the uplift of the women in the country.