NCSW

National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) & Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) “Mera Bhag, Tiyag hee Tiyag” A Dialogue with the Women of the Arid Zones of the Sindh and a Women’s Mela March 16-17, 2008 @ Mithi (Tharparkar)
 

The low level of women’s participation in social, political and economic life, in spite of the progress made by women’s movements over past few decades, highlights two key issues for consideration:

Political power is still the main stronghold of patriarchy and has remained virtually untouched until today
Deep gender inequalities continue to exist

Women are therefore placed at a great disadvantage. The public sphere and political institutions in Pakistan have been created based on the patterns of behavior of men belonging to national elites, or those linked to feudalist elites. The arid zones of Sindh reflect these political conditions in socio-economic life s well.

But some things are changing and there is a way to optimism. One can see in the arid zones of Sindh, women reweaving their worlds by enlivening the home compounds, recreating mutual relations, establishing village and union council level institutions, creating small enterprises and defying the authority of men practically. That’s what we saw and heard on March 16, 2008 at Mithi, the district headquarters of Tharparkar, when NCSW and TRDP organized a 2 day dialogue and a womens mela on March 16-17, 2008, the first time ever in the history of Thar, in connection with the international women day celeberation. About 1500 women from 123 villages participated in the event from rural arid zones of Mithi, Umerkot, Dadu and Khairpur districts.

The main objectives of the dialogue and mela were:

To have an opportunity for rural women from Sindh Arid zones to speak out and discuss their issues and problems, and as a result to find the solutions for the problems Providing a medium to rural women to speak out their issues and encouraging them to become the part of mainstream Sharing the self-experience/s of the community women, who have struggled and played an incredible role for women development in rural areas Facilitating the government and non-government institutions to understand the problems of women in the rural areas to make women-friendly plans and policies To have an opportunity for women of rural area of Sindh especially Tharparkar to sell and purchase for engaging and understanding of market economy. The NCSW delegation included Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra (Chairoperson of NCSW) Ms Simi Kamal (also the vice Chairperson of TRDP) and several NCSW members - Dr Parveen Shaha, Ms. Erum Wali Khan, Dr Shahida Haidar, DR Faqir Hussain, Ms Tahira Kamal. Three staff members of NCSW also attended along with senior management of TRDP and a big gathering of women and children.

The event commenced with a traditional welcome including Muslim and Hindu prayers, music and theatre by children and young people on themes of women’s emancipation and advancement and speeches by several women of the arid zones who spoke of how they had pulled themselves out of a dismal situation to be role models for the women of Thar.

This was followed by a dialogue on “Mera Bhag Tiyag hee Tiyag” – the this this year of NCSWs programme of meeting women all across Pakistan. Dr Sono Khangharani, CEO TRDP, welcomed the Chairperson of NCSW, respected guests from NCSW and the participants. Dr Parveen Shah, respected member NCSW and Ms Nasreen Khan, Regional Manager of TRDP, were the facilitators for the dialogue.

Women from communities spoke openly on the issues and problems of rural women. They said that they have understood that they can change the society through being organized. They expressed the problems of education, health, water & sanitation, and involvement of women in income-generating activities etc. They said that they reached there in Mithi only because they are organized, t that without being organized they never would have stepped out of their communities.

Summing up the discussion Dr Sono Khangharani, Chief Executive Officer TRDP, said that “women of arid zones are not far away from the mainstream, and they have enough potential too, but the particular conditions of the areas, lack of resources for effective participation in the mainstream and lack of women-friendly policies and guidance have put the women of rural areas at the distance. If they get resources and guidance in right direction, women from Tharparkar, Umerkot, Nara and Dadu can prove their talent and potential to become the effective part of mainstream. They only need suitable opportunities and resources and then they will travel themselves for the thriving of arid zones of Sindh.” He also said, “TRDP has organized women of rural area, made them habitual to save, facilitated them to engage in market economy through providing the micro-loans, supported them with household infrastructure, water and sanitation, education, health, emergency and other activities to step a head towards mainstream. But TRDP has to do more for consolidating the changes.”

Talking on the occasion the famous Educationist, Gender Activist and Chairperson of NCSW, Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra said, “Women have same problems and issues in all rural areas of Pakistan. But change is possible, when women will stand and express themselves. From rural areas of Tharparkar to mountainous peaks of Northern areas, the vast plateaus of Balochistan and in the areas of Punjab and NWFP, poverty, lack of education facilities, and lack of livelihood options are the general problems. There are non-functional schools in rural areas, and even girls’ education is prohibited in some places. As I heard these women from arid zones, I feel that they have become “kundan” from the “flamed experience” of their lives – that is they have emerged ever brighter and stronger having passed through the fires of toil and difficulties”.

Women have enough esteem and regard that expressing their problems they didn’t even blame their men, she also said. She felt that TRDP has played a really significant role for the development of women of arid zones.

Ms Simi Kamal, Vice Chairperson of Board of Directors of TRDP and a member of NCSW, expressed vote of thanks to the participants and NCSW for coming to TRDP and Tharparkar to discuss the issues and problems of rural women.

After the dialogue, the Mela was inaugurated and opened Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra, with Ms Simi Kamal, and Dr. Sono Khangharani.

The Mela included a Rural Women Conference, theatre, music and singing, documentaries, experience- sharing, and other entertaining and informative activities. There were 20 stalls of handicrafts, embroidery, quilts, decoration pieces, paintings, drip-Irrigation, cosmetics, locally made jewelry, confectionary and food items. All the stalls were organized by women from communities.

The respected guests from NCSW visited the stalls, watched the documentaries and enjoyed Folk-singings performed by local women and men singers. The Women’s Mela continued till late night on March 17, 2008 and rural women enjoyed the entertained and informative activities and shopping.

All the sectors of TRDP including Human Resource Development (HRD), Gender, Advocacy & Network (GAN), Child Rights Unit (CRU), Micro-Credit & Enterprise Development (MED) and Region Mithi played key role for organizing the NCSW dialogue and the women’s conference and mela.