WUNRN
Hajra, Khatija and Sakina: three friends
and neighbours living in
Hilda Saeed | 14 April, 2013
Hajra and her friends are just a few of the
millions of Pakistani women whose lives are constrained by extreme poverty.
Studies, and even just observation, frequently highlight women’s
disproportionately high representation among the country’s poor. As Dr Mahbub ul
Haq once put it, “Women have been reduced to economic nonentities.”
Globally, poverty remains a challenge: the
World Bank estimates that 1.29 billion people live in absolute poverty; the sad
fact is that about 70 per cent of them are women. In
However, according to the Human Development
Index, 2009, 60.3pc of
The reasons for such high poverty levels
are several: corruption, illicit capital flight, debt and loan
conditionalities, high defence expenditures, and now, extremism. Those are the
general ones.
To quote Tahira Abdullah, “Poverty has a
woman’s face.” Women face the triple burden of child-bearing, child rearing,
and domestic unpaid labour; they have been denied opportunities for growth, are
without access to adequate healthcare, education or income, and simultaneously
forced to live in the tight bind of culture and tradition.
Their poverty is multidimensional; not only
of lack of income, but also of nutrition and health; they are denied education
and the ability to earn an adequate income, their vulnerability prevents them
from advancing their innate capabilities. To add to that, gender biases and
patriarchal/misogynist mindsets permeate every aspect of their lives. Living
with discrimination and gender-based violence is a daily reality for many.
Poverty levels in the country have crept
upwards and are considered to be among the highest in
The Economic Survey of Pakistan barely
acknowledges their presence and their contribution — the female labour force
participation rate is the lowest in the South Asian region. A survey by Yasir
Amin (in Economistan, April 12, 2012) noted that women’s contribution to the
labour force had actually shrunk from 33pc in 2000 to 21pc in 2011.
The risks of increasing poverty grow in
parallel with the number of women-headed households. Single mothers are at
highest risk, as are their children, who are likely to be deprived of adequate
schooling and nutrition. Like most women, they have no alternative to poorly
paid, informal employment.
It is no surprise that women are
over-represented among the country’s poor; discrimination against them exists
at all levels, within the family, with its unequal gendered division of
responsibilities and labour, inequality in access to healthcare, to schooling,
to social protection. Tradition ordains that their mobility be restricted.
Unsurprisingly, few poor women have hope of
escaping this poverty as there are so many odds stacked against them. Despite
laws that favour them, even richer women are regularly denied land inheritance
by emotional coercion, forced marriage and even by ‘marriage’ to the Quran.
The current political situation prevailing
in the country presents a mixed picture for women’s progress and development.
On the one hand, there are several forward-looking laws and amendments,
widespread provision of safety nets like the Benazir Income Support Programme
and increased school enrolment for girls. On the other hand is the snail’s pace
at which the bureaucracy moves to implement those laws. Then again, there’s
society’s stubbornly ‘eyes shut’ attitude to women’s rights and progress, the
lack of recognition that women’s progress requires an acceptance of their
constitutionally guaranteed equal status as citizens of this country.
If women are to progress and participate
effectively in the economy, they must receive equal education, equal training,
in rural and urban sectors and equal dignity and income.