The government must concentrate on retaining girls in educational institutes and should invest in encouraging girls to excel in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). It is imperative to amend the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 for both sexes and make Nikkah registration mandatory with a national identity card to curb the practices of underage marriages. Considering the context of intersecting forms of discrimination against women/girls government must protect women/girls with disabilities, intersex women/girls, and women/girls belonging to religious minorities.
The government must make the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) functional by allocating appropriate resources, announcing its proper body, and ensuring vigorous implementation of anti-sexual harassment laws. Such demands were raised during the proceedings of a conference titled ‘Equitable Quality Education for Girls and Leave No One Behind Agenda’ under the theme ‘Invest in Women – Accelerate Progress’ organized by the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) on the International Day of Women with the cooperation of the Malala Fund. The key note speakers included MPA, Shazia George – Director AWAM, Sonia Patras – Deputy Director AWAM, Zainab Khalid – Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Sonia Javed – Programme Coordinator AWAM, Member Punjab Assembly Sheikh Shahid Javed said, “it is primary responsibility of the representative of public to bring the issues into the parliament for the discussion and resolve. “the women’s related issues related explicitly to underage/forced marriages, amending the age of marriage, and promoting social inclusion of persons with disabilities would be taken on priority basis, the parliamentarian pledged. Director AWAM Pakistan and former member of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) Shazia George said, “Despite several laws and policies, the incident of violence against women and the ratio of crimes against women is swelling for want of inappropriate measure to implement and insufficient resources.”
The Police Department representative Zainab Khalid (ASP) said, “The government specifically focuses on pro-women policies and invests in protecting women from violence. Regarding this, there are several helplines and campaigns to educate the general masses on pro-women laws and facilitate women victims of violence.” Research Scholar and Deputy Director AWAM Sonia Patras said, “11.4 million, age bracket of 10-14, never attended any school, of which the significant ratio is female. Missing school facilities, customary practices, underage marriages, sexual harassment, and inappropriate numbers of schools for girls/women mounting the school dropout ratio among girls.
