Zubair Qureshi
The 3-day 16th Annual Rural Women Conference organized by Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) and supported by the national and international stakeholders kicked off at LokVirsa featuring a number of important sessions on status of Pakistani women as this year’s conference theme is “Stop Child Marriages for Sustainable Development, Climate and Democracy.”
While addressing various sessions at the event, the speakers cautioned against the alarming lack in birth registration of girls and marginalized segments of the society calling upon the government to devise effective mechanisms such as involving communities, innovative solutions and use of digital technologies to curb this trend.
“Due to lack of official identity (ID) girls are deprived of their fundamental human rights including right to legal identity, citizenship, education, marriage, reproductive health, inheritance, government assistance, services and lead a dignified life as these are the rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan,” said PODA Founder and President SameenaNazir on the occasion.
Birth registration helps in decreasing the risks of child marriage, child labour and children being treated as adults in the criminal justice system,” President of PODA said during the second session of the day.
“This very basic human right will provide a strong foundation for achieving gender equality and empower women and girls,” said a speaker adding “Gender equality is goal 5 of SDGs which is translated into all SDGs.”
Earlier, after the inaugural plenary, the day’s proceedings were focused on the rights of girl child and registration issues linked with an alarming neglect to register birth of girl children. The Pakistan Demographic & Health Survey (PDHS) survey identifies that here 42pc children under the age of five are not registered, it was pointed out by one of the speakers. The conference will culminate on Tuesday (tomorrow) in an award ceremony celebrating the successes of the rural women who are participating actively in the events representing more than 150 districts of the country. The conference has been regular feature in Islamabad since 2008.
However, in newly merged districts of FATA, the birth registration rate is far low. According to UNICEF it was 1pc in 2017 in former agencies.
Being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Government of Pakistan is committed to provide children their basic rights to survival, development, protection and participation.
The noted speakers included LeherMirza, SudiKohli, Sofia Javed, SughraRahman, DrYasminGul, ShahidaWafaAlvi, SadafRaza,, FareehaAmmar , DarakhshanSaleh, KanwalLiaqat, SabeenRizvi and others. Ms. Raina represented transgender community. She called upon the government institutions to come forward and ensure 100pc birth registration. It should not be left to the will of the families and others, she said.
