In order to bring women folk in the mainstream of national development, a number of practical steps have been initiated and the government as output of these steps expects that by 2015, about 30-percent employment of women in public sector would be achieved.
Punjab Finance Minister Sardar Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak expressed these views while addressing a day workshop on 'Gender Mainstreaming', which was organised by Planning and Development Department here on Saturday. P&D Chairman Sibtain Fazal Haleem and provincial Secretaries of various government departments also attended the workshop.
The minister said that during this political regime, serious efforts to bring the women, which constitutes about 53 percent of our total population, in mainstream were under way. "These include: to achieve the goal of gender equality under millennium development goal; to address gender in equality under Mid Term Budgetary Framework so that poverty may be alleviated; and general reforms action plan with the development budget at a cost of Rs 609 million," he added.
He maintained that in the sphere of politics, women were to be empowered by giving them more representation in parliamentary committees. "Similarly in the institutional field, women participation in recruitment committees from the level of Public Service Commission to district level," he added.
Earlier, Sibtain Fazal Haleem in his brief address said that women labour and work must be recognised at every level. He observed that women's contribution was second to none but mostly it remains unnoticed or unrecognised.
The purpose of the workshop was to sensitise the high-ranking government functionaries particularly the Secretaries of nation buildings departments to play a vital role in planning as well as implementation of the development schemes.