The speakers of the concluding session of 1st international conference on women entrepreneurship have emphasized the importance of empowering women and called for removal of barriers and restraints that prevent their advancement in education and growth in various sectors, particularly in Sindh’s rural areas. They said women should work collectively for their rights and empowerment and the provincial government must extend its full cooperation in ensuring females’ success while men should also allow female members of their families to work for their empowerment. The 1st International Conference on “Women Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities” organized by Sindh University’s Technology Incubation Center (TIC) at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology was concluded on Thursday.
The Dean Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET) Prof. Dr. Khalil ur Rehman Khoumbhati told the audience that the provincial assembly had enacted certain laws to address issues relating to womenfolk but these legislation were not being implemented in letter and spirits. He said that the laws addressed the issues like marital abuse, honor-killing and forced conversion of minority women; therefore, he said the government must come forward to ensuring implementation on the legislation.
He predicted that in order for women to regain their social rights, they would have to step forward themselves, claiming that empowerment was not possible without efforts of females. Dr Khoumbhati said that there were distressing tales about girls’ education in rural areas of the province. Society would need to set free itself from imposing restrictions and remove barriers that prevented girls from obtaining education instead of merely sobbing. He maintained that the situation of imparting education was getting worse in the rural areas, where Pakistan was falling behind even in the underdeveloped countries.
He said that Pakistan ranked second-to-last on the ranking for women’s education at the grass root level but he clarified that the situation at the universities was different as more girls came to seek higher studies. He asserted that no nation could advance without educating its women and allowing them to kick off entrepreneurship at a larger scale.
The Director Technology Incubation Center (TIC) Dr. Arifa Bhutto said that women formed only 30 percent of teachers in Sindh.
