Moalims

Sir: Gender discrimination occurs when the sexes are treated unequally. Gender discrimination in Pakistan occurs in various conditions. For example, educational facilities are rare for women. Many people have old concepts about the education of girls. They are bound to typical and conservative traditions. They think that women can do household chores only so they do not need any formal education. In the tribal areas, the conditions are even worse where the literacy rate of males is 29.1 percent and of females it is less than three percent. That is where we are going wrong.

It is really a miserable condition that 10 to 15 percent newly born babies or their mothers die in hospitals due to the lack of proper care, less treatment facilities or shortage of medicines. Attitudes and a good bedside manner also count in the process of treating female patients. Women in villages hesitate to get treatment from hospitals. They prefer to stay at home and give birth to their babies. They need education and awareness to change their minds and be willing for treatment in hospitals. Sexual harassment is one of the worst situations of discrimination and it occurs very often in Pakistan.

Employment is also a very important fact to be considered in gender discrimination. In Pakistan, 98 percent top managers in banks and other financial institutions and industrial units are males. This clearly shows that women are not treated equally as candidates for top managers. Males are given priority over females in a country where females are more in number. The government should introduce laws that prohibit gender discrimination and offer remedies for such behaviour in employment as well as in educational and financial institutions.

The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. The Equal Pay Act promotes equality between men and women who perform the same duties in the workplace. The National Commission on the Status of Women should be requested to formulate its plans and strategies in such form that could be directed to play an active role to raise awareness and advocacy against the unbearable violation of women rights.

MUHAMMAD RIZWAN ALI

Chakwal