Islamabad,Nov 12: without the participation of women in all the fields of life, sustainable development cannot be achieved, said the advisor to the prime minister on women development,Nilofar Bakhtiar.She was presiding over a meeting of national steering committee and national draft presentation of Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP) here on Wednesday.

The government aims at promoting gender equality through gender sensitive socio-economic policy reforms and by improving women’s representation in political and administrative spheres besides providing them great and easier access to social service,Ms Nilofar said.

She said in a patriarchal society like Pakistan, role of women needed to be enhanced and through GRAP ,the ministry was pushing quarters concerned at policy-making level so that they would be given their due rights.

She said the government was aware of the fact that female literacy was only 29 per cent as compared to the literacy rate of 55 per cent of man. On the other hand, female infant mortality rate is higher(85 per 1,00 live births) than that of male children(82 per 1,000 live births) than that of male children(82 per 1,000).Only 47 per cent of girl children are fully immunized as compared to 52 per cent of boys. About 40 per cent of adult women suffer from anaemia she said.

Source: Dawn

Date:11/13/2003