Countering gender violence

Gender disparity and violence against women, particularly domestic violence as well as workplace harassment of women has become a major national issue in Pakistan, as elsewhere in the world, for which legislation has been enacted in almost all countries to provide legal safeguards to woman victims. Last year, Pakistan observed a 16-day activism campaign involving a signature drive to promote awareness of the problem that has mostly remained hidden behind the walls.
Legislative initiatives taken at both national and provincial levels in Pakistan, including passage of the landmark Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010. It was on November 15, 2011 that the National Assembly passed a twice-snubbed landmark private bill demanding greater social protection for women.
Authored by PML-Q MNA Dr Donya Aziz, the bill - the prevention of Anti-women practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2011 - had remained stuck for three years. The laws introduced and amendments made in Criminal Procedure Code to enhance punishment for sexual harassment as well as introduction of mechanisms to ensure conviction have rightly been hailed at every level as a major milestone that will help promote gender equality.
The UN Secretary-General's campaign under the slogan of "Unite to End Violence Against Women" exhorts all countries to put in place by 2015 effective laws and multi-sectoral action plans to address the problem of sexual harassment in conflict situations such as wars and civil wars during which women and girls, being physically weak, are the worst victims.
A Network of Men Leaders to strengthen advocacy around these issues was launched in 2009, in yet another effort to promote awareness of the problem. The perception that lack of economic opportunity, joblessness and poverty, which are often deemed contributory causes of domestic violence and discord, cannot be ignored.
Persistent fund-starvation of the social sector - the greatest injustice done to the nation - to generate funds for grandiose projects dear to those at the helm, astronomical corruption, and an abysmally low tax-to-GDP ratio are the issues that have brought our national economy to heel, with apparently no chance of things getting better, at least in the near future.
Our foreign debt has long crossed the $55 billion mark, with a corresponding rise in debt servicing, together with defence eat up a major portion of the national budget. We are said to have been funding the deficit through additional loans obtained at very stiff conditionalities.
Further, it is alleged that the reason why almost all our governments have appointed former or serving bankers as finance ministers is that the main qualifying criterion for the post is said to have been the ability to arrange of foreign loans, which is what we desperately need as a nation addicted to dole. Neglect of public sector education and health has inflicted the greatest harm to the country's long-term interests.
Further, induction of private sector in the two fields, apparently to meet the needs of the upper crust, is generally seen to have been a policy manoeuvre to cement the existing dichotomies. The havoc wrought by the super flood has caused the country to slip into recession, the effects of which will gradually unfold in the months and years ahead.
The resulting poverty, misery and dislocation may lead to greater gender violence, against which the government must act through a cogent strategy. Secondly, doling out cash to the dispossessed under various poverty alleviation schemes will prove counterproductive. The money should be invested in schemes that promote job creation.
As economic factors play a contributory role in maintaining domestic harmony, the government needs to introduce pro-people policies to help alleviate poverty. Secondly, it should consider initiating marital counelling to address severe cases of disharmony. Involvement of family elders in such cases can probably prove more helpful than of police.
Ironically, this is a measure of our national psyche that even domestic disharmony is being seen as a law and order problem. It seems that the saner approach of involving family and community elders and marital counsellors may produce better results than police, which may generate personal and family feuds.