Reflections on a recent visit to Lahore by Jon Gregson
In 2000, I was living in Kathmandu in Nepal and working at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). It was an exciting time as countries in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region were opening up to the positive possibilities for knowledge sharing in the ‘Internet age’ and making use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). I had the opportunity to visit Pakistan for the first time and along with visiting Islamabad I had the opportunity to see the amazing beauty of the region around Gilgit in Humla. A few years later as part of a collaboration between Imperial College London and Allama Iqbal Open University I made a further visit returning to Islamabad, and had the opportunity to visit a distance education centre in the beautiful Swat valley (where Malala Yousafzai come from) in a part of the country that soon became hard to visit. In the wake of 9/11 troubled times were coming to Pakistan and in recent years we have become all too aware of negative international headlines for example relating to security. Whilst such concerns have been very real, they have perhaps concealed some of the more positive initiatives in the country that deserve to be read about more widely.
The opportunity to visit Lahore for the first time in August was set against this backdrop and I felt both excitement at returning to such a beautiful country after several years, mixed with a little anxiety as I wondered what I would find. Soon after arriving I immediately felt at ease as I met the host for my visit Ume-Laila Azhar, the CEO at Homenet Pakistan, and the research team for our project on ‘Women, Work and Violence’ headed up by Fatimah Ihsan. The purpose of the visit was to participate in a workshop to share information about our research project with a wide range of stakeholders, and seek their input and support for activities we wanted to plan in order to ensure that findings from the project reach the right people and have a positive influence on policy and practice. Our project is focussed on three countries (Pakistan, Myanmar and Nepal) and involves qualitative and quantitative studies exploring the intersection between women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and violence against women (VAW). The study in Pakistan involves engaging with women from different economic strata in society, in communities in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
The visit to Lahore provided me with a great personal learning opportunity, as I met with people during and after the workshop, many of whom had worked for years to tackle the social problems of violence against women and promote their economic empowerment. I met with people from academia, from NGOs, labour organisations and Government departments, and with legal experts and representatives from the media. I was impressed by the wide range of engagement of both women and men offering their skills and knowledge to support a common goal of gender equity in Pakistan. I would like to highlight three initiatives that really stood out for me:
- The Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) has launched a ‘Gender Management Information System’ (GMIS) (http://www.gmis.gop.pk/) which presents a wider range of data on the status of women in the province, using powerful visual tools. PCSW is actively engaged in further household surveys taking place over the next couple of years so the GMIS will be strengthened further. They also now have access to digitised land ownership records covering most of the urban population and a police database. Taking this all together in combination with census data, the emerging system provides an increasingly powerful platform for informing policy and practice based on a clearer evidence informed picture of the realities of women’s status in the Province. They also provide a helpline service supported by support agents and legal experts.
- Following on from the recently approved Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016, the Special Monitoring Unit of the Punjab Chief Ministers Office is piloting a Violence Against Women Centre in Multan. This is seen as a first of the kind initiative in the region, in providing victims of violence with an integrated set of services accessible in one place including medical facilities, police and rehabilitation services. The aim will be to replicate this model and roll it out in 36 further centres in the Province by 2020.
- Against this backdrop of more information, research and knowledge related to the problems women face, and provision of better facilities, the role of NGOs such as Homenet Pakistan (http://www.homenetpakistan.org/) and AURAT Foundation (http://www.af.org.pk/) remains critical in truly empowering women. The actions such organisations are taking to advocate for women’s rights, share information in appropriate formats, build awareness of what services are available, and support and develop networks at the community level, are critical for supporting change. Their activities can help ensure that policies are implemented, and services are accessed and designed in ways that respond to the demand and needs of the most vulnerable women.
The overriding feeling, I came away with was a very positive impression of the commitment of people working to improve the lives of women in Punjab region. Over 40 people came at short notice to attend our workshop and the interest and support shown has been very encouraging. It would be foolish to understate the challenge faced by women faced in Pakistan, as there are clearly many huge social and economic factors to be faced and the country ranks third on the list of most dangerous countries for women to live. The article linked below by Justice Nasira, is a sober account of the current situation and challenge that women face in Pakistan, and we must not ignore the new types of violence against women (highlighted by a number of people at the workshop), arising due to globalisation and use of ICTs.
However, it feels like an important stage and potential turning point has been reached now, with more data to inform policy, and legislation coming through supported by services to support the victims of violence. There is now a need to build on this platform and enable women to have more choice in dealing with the challenges they face so that they can truly become more empowered. Qualitative research of the sort we are engaging with in this project can help give light to critical issues and make it clear to policy makers what they should be focusing on and what indicators they need to measure to evaluate progress related to gender equity. The continued commitment of civil society and government will also be critical in raising awareness and helping women access the support services such as the VAWC’s now being piloted.
I hope we will soon be reading much more in the international media about the positive actions being taken in Pakistan, as there is much that could be learned in other countries from what is being done here.
The following documents provide further information and include some presentations made at the workshop:
- Presentation by the Special Monitoring Unit (SMU) on the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016
- Homenet Pakistan Powerpoint Presentation providing an overview of their work
- Situation of Violence Against Women (A brief paper supplied by HomeNet Pakistan)
- PPowerPointPresentation on WOmens Economic Empowerment and Violence Against Women and Girls, by Khawan Mumtaz, NCSW