Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday launched a project titled 'Addressing Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Pakistan' here at local hotel on Friday. The ADB will provide assistance for strengthening the national helpline (Madadgaar) which has been working in Pakistan for the last 12 years.
"The project will increase awareness and access to helpline services in all the four provinces and build the capacity of lawyers' pool at the provincial level to provide free legal aid to GBV victims," said Uzma Altaf (Gender Specialist) of ADB. She said that the project would provide a platform to youth for giving awareness on GBV issues and build their capacity in mitigating the growing incidence of GBV.
On this occasion, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto, Sindh Minister for Women Development, appreciated the efforts of Zia Awan, President LHRLA, saying that such type of projects would help in eradication of GBV in the society. She said that a bill regarding domestic violence would be tabled in the provincial assembly. "Concerted efforts are needed to end gender inequalities in our society," she underlined.
President LHRLA, Zia Awan, said that Pakistan with an estimated population of more than 190 million was ranked 145th among 187 countries in human development (UN report 2011). "Women being the vulnerable class of our country have been at the disadvantage of getting abused and cursed. Violence against women is an important human rights issue which needs a significant focus. Reasons for this increasing violence include the feudal system, patriarchal mind-set of the society, increasing poverty and lack of education," said Awan.
He said that violation of human rights specifically GBV was quite rampant in the country which also contributed towards low indicators of human development. According to Madadgaar National Helpline's data, in Pakistan 6218 women became violence victims in 2012. As many as 1425 were physically/mentally tortured and 1109 women were murdered. With this, 574 were kidnapped, 418 were raped, 160 were gang raped and 185 were raped and murdered. Whereas, 216 were burned, 450 committed suicide, 554 were tortured by police and 316 became victim of karo kari.
The data also revealed 171 women trafficking issues, 276 cases of forced marriage, 186 Zana cases and 178 vani cases. In province wise division, Punjab ranks highest at 2727 total reported cases. Former Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa, Muhammad Rashid, Country director Plan-International, Zeba Bakhtiar and others also spoke.
Comments
Comments are closed.