Harassment-free working environment for women urged

Dr Farah Masood, Secretary Punjab Labor and Human Resource Department, emphasized the need of educating the girls, setting up "training cum works centers for women and girls" and sorting out the problems in their commuting from home to workplace to home.
She specially advised the employers to respect the women and girls' rights and protect them from every sort of infringement, to pay fair wages to them, to provide them with free of harassment working environment and to instill in them the passion to do something constructive for the society.
Addressing a ceremony organized by Baidarie Sialkot here with the support provided by UN Women country office Islamabad, CEOs of 16 more companies (13 from Sialkot, 2 from Faisalabad and 1 from Lahore), she said that popular attitude aiming at promoting gender inequality and mass mindset to promote male dominance as the major impediments thwarting the process of women empowerment in the country. Dr Farah emphasized that toils of the working women should not be undermined, instead the must be valued and respected by all in society, state and businesses.
Women and girls must be encouraged and supported to have self-confidence in their faculties and potentials for national development women must be made aware of the rights promised by the law of the land and they should be provided with harassment free atmosphere so that they may substantially contribute to the advancement of the society she said.
Women must be made aware of the rights promised by the law and they should be provided harassment free atmosphere so that they should substantially contribute to the advancement of the society she said. Addressing the participants of the ceremony, Sangeeta Thapa Deputy Country Representative UN WOMEN in Pakistan said that Pakistan is ranking intolerably high in global gender inequality index and female participation in labour has just touched the figure of 24.6 percent.
Women workforce from the mainstream economic developing process is causing the seriously slow pace of GDP growth rate in the country she said. Sangeeta said that it is imperatively necessary for mainstream national development that opportunities and space for social, economic and political empowerment be provided to women and girls.
Sialkot industry's commitment to support women empowerment is a right step in the right direction which will open new avenues for the social, economic and political empowerment of women not only in Sialkot but will set trends for empowerment of women in whole of the country she added.
Professor Arshad Mehmood Mirza Executive Director Baidarie, while addressing the ceremony said that Baidarie has been making continuous efforts to build knowledge of the home based /domestic women workers on their basic rights, imparting them with training on income generating skills relevant to the professional requirements of the local market, development of entrepreneurship in women, provision of access to the markets, job placements of women and girls for their socioeconomic empowerment.
He said all of these efforts are being carried out with the support provided by UN WOMEN, ILO, PPAF, Adidas, Benetton group and local industrial entities. Speaking at the occasion, Hina Noureen, President Baidarie said that Baidarie is supporting the government in a big way by providing health care facilities to women, providing them with access to income generation spaces and options, getting the women registered as voters and enabling them to act as members of vigilant citizenry.
She said that it is the success of the organization that it has been successful in attracting the attention of some of major brand to contribute to the process of women empowerment. It has also been successful in bringing the matters relating to women empowerment to the attention of the policies and decision makers in state, society and businesses.