Senate body for creating awareness of women issues
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Women Development has appreciated the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Women Development to sensitise the government departments about gender reforms but called for increased mass awareness about the women issues.
In a meeting held here on Friday, the standing committee recommended that village planning should be given due importance and proper sanitation should be ensured. It also recommended buses should be made available exclusively for women and suggested that more buses be arranged and more funding be made.
Secretary Ministry of Women Development Batool Iqbal Qureshi addressing the meeting highlighted the effective and active role played by the government in alleviating sufferings of the flood affected women and children and providing food, schools and medicines, etc. She informed about efforts being made to rehabilitate the affected people.
Despite limited resources, the ministry has reached out to the flood affected women and children through 26 Shaheed Banazir Bhutto crisis centres now declared as rehabilitation centres. The DCOs of the affected areas in collaboration with centres of MOWD worked day and night for providing relief and aid to the affected women, the secretary said.
There were a total of 500,000 pregnant women who were facilitated by these centres. They also provided psychological, social and legal aid to the distressed and affected women. The Muzaffargarh centre has proved very effective for pregnant women and in Swat 20 pregnant women were facilitated during the floods.
The MOWD has given a one-village plan to the USAID for rehabilitation of 50 villages in the country affected due to floods, she said. The committee appreciated the contributions made by Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali and Yasmeen Rehman for the cause of women and praised the struggle by the provincial ministries for women development.
The committee also appreciated Ghazala and Laila Nusarrat, who most actively participated in the flood relief work. The meeting presided over by Shirala Malick was attended by Begum Najma Hameed, Farah Aqil, Sabeena Rauf, Fauzia Fakharuzaman, Surriya Amiruddin and Farhat Abbas.
Source: The News
Date:10/23/2010
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