Every year in March, there is a sudden burst of activity in the development world and amongst donor circles around gender parity. Conferences and marches are organized on the International Women’s Day on March 8, the United Nations reminds the world of its veritably important Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Goal # 5 to achieve gender equality and towards the end, the World Economic Forum (WEF) launches its Global Gender Gap index—which is now in its 16th year—presenting some frightening results and recording very few wins. Then March goes, and the debate slowly dies down (which is why this column is written in April).

The challenge for Pakistan—one of the most populous country with almost as many women as men—is bigger and graver. Despite consistently being in the bottom spots in the world, standing shoulder to shoulder with war-torn Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan (also on the 7th spot out of 8 in South Asia); Pakistan has made little to no progress over the years, or shown any intention of making such a progress to achieve gender parity. What does gender parity mean though? Let’s break it down in numbers.

Only 22.6 percent women in Pakistan participate in the labor force, fewer still in managerial positions (<5%). This results in a loss of potential productivity and hurts the economy at large. Meanwhile, women in Pakistan, on average earn 16.3 percent of what men earn.

The law is also skewed—women have unequal access to justice, ownership of land and non-financial assets as well as inheritance rights. Literacy and education attainment is abysmally low—less than half the female population above the age of 10 can read and write in any language—the same is 70 percent for the male population. About 61 percent attend primary school, 34 percent attend high school and only 8.3 percent get enrolled in tertiary education. Many of these simply drop-out.

Low education levels also continuously keep women out of formal labor force and provide few chances for economic empowerment or independence. Financial dependence on the male members of the households often makes them vulnerable to violence at home. It also has an effect on their health—in 2018, a study conducted by UN found that more than 58 percent of the women in the poor households of Pakistan do not have any say in the matter of their own health. Evidence suggests that working women are more likely to play a role in household decision making.

Lack of agency in decision making, however, has dire consequences for their own and their children’s health and nutrition. According to the Global Nutrition Index, 52 percent of the reproductive mothers in Pakistan are anemic.

The ability to earn can be a powerful tool here. While women’s participation in the labor force wanes as we move up the income ladder, many women laborers remain unpaid. A study conducted by Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) found that women participating in agricultural labor who were predominantly unpaid were more likely to be undernourished and underweight than those that were not working. The study argued that if women were to get paid for their work, it would have a positive impact on their nutrition as women earners make more pro-nutrition consumption choices. The study cited that “women’s autonomy in production and women’s work in agriculture improved diet diversity and reduced the incidence of stunting”.

There are many other staggering statistics. But just kickstarting the debate on gender parity is fraught with controversies in the country. Perhaps, one could contend that the controversies and social media meme wars surrounding Aurat March has had the unintended consequence of at least getting the conversation started. But lack of any improvement in major statistics indicate the conversation is reaching deaf ears.

Some interventions have come. The Benazir Income Support Program in 2008 which was expanded during the current political regime and transformed into Ehsaas provides cash support to poor women, and free education to young girls under Waseela-e-Taleem (WeT) program. Under the Sehat Sahulat Program, health cards are provided to poor families while there are a number of concessionary loan schemes for women entrepreneurs and women-led SMEs.

But these have shown mixed and only incremental improvements. To achieve education, economic and social equality for women, concerted reform-based efforts need to be made. This would entail making gender parity part of the national agenda—ensuring that girls are not left out of school, and women are not left out of the paid and formal workforce while promoting their economic participation through innovative entrepreneurship-boosting policies. There is a mountain of research conducted across the world that shows how this can be achieved. What’s needed is the motivation where the buck stops—right at the top.