Policy Dialogue On Women's Rights Held

A policy dialogue between members of parliament and civil society was held here on Saturday to protect and promote women's rights

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Sep, 2021 ) :A policy dialogue between members of parliament and civil society was held here on Saturday to protect and promote women's rights.

The dialogue was organized by Shirkat Gah Women's Resource Centre in collaboration with Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) and Women Development Department (WDD) Balochistan.

Chairperson of Women Parliamentary Caucus, Dr Rubaba Khan Buledi presented legislative priorities of the WPC including harassment at workplace, home-based workers, persons with disabilities, ending early age marriage and a reproductive health policy.

She stressed that WPC was working on issues of Balochistan, that would be resolved with the help of people.

Parliamentary Secretary of WDD, Mahjabeen Sheeran, Assistant Director, Naheed Babar presented priorities and initiatives of WDD.

The WDD priority area was financial empowerment of women for which an endowment fund for business women, business incubations centers, and trainings on e-commerce had been set-up.

To make the public space friendly for working women day-care centers and hostels were being built. For women victims of violence, crisis centres were being set up and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for shelters were being made in collaboration with Social Welfare Department.

Other initiatives include setting up of Digital library for women.

Dr. Rubaba Buledi, as parliamentary secretary for Health, presented initiatives taken for women by the Health department. These initiatives were included setting up of nursing corners, medical services provision for female prisoners and their children, training of community health workers, psychiatric help and psychological counselling through telemedicine, provision of medical aid to victims of gender based violence and working on a Reproductive Health Bill.

Dr. Rubaba and Mahjabeen Sheeran thanked the Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan, for supporting their work.

The civil society members while appreciating the work, stressed that more work should be done to facilitate female teachers and students by increasing number of schools and residences for teachers.

Finance Minister Balochistan, Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi said that women's empowerment was a priority of the provincial government and stressed that we have to change our thinking and behaviors about women.