'Investing In Rural Women To Play Key Role In Economic Growth, Eliminate Poverty'

ISLAMABAD, Dec 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Dec, 2022 ) :Coordinator to Federal Tax Ombudsman Meher Kashif Younis on Thursday said that investment in rural women, a major chunk of total population, could play key role in economic growth, eliminate abject poverty and abolish hunger in Pakistan.

Speaking at a seminar on " Role of Rural Women in National Development", he said that majority of women were living in rural areas and their contribution towards national development was extremely marginal, said a press release.

He said if we fully utilize this untapped vast potential successfully in a planned manners, Pakistan can make strides in every sphere of life that will help ameliorate a lot to improve socio-economic complexion of women folk across the country.

He urged the government to make sure that all public sector entities engaged for rural uplift to deliver otherwise same task be entrusted to private sector with full government support which will bring revolution.

Younis said that one of the most efficient and effective strategic actions to address these issues include empowering rural women, as the efforts and talents of rural women are crucial to countering hunger and poverty.

He said rural women make up a quarter of the world population and close to half of the world's agricultural workforce, whereas in some developing contexts a large majority of farmers are women.

Meher Kashif Younis said yet globally including Pakistan rural women are paid 25 percent less than men for doing the same work, adding that women are also more likely to suffer from poverty, hunger and the health effects of insufficient nutrition.

He said empowerment of rural women should also be seen as investing in an untapped resource that benefits society.He said recent study indicated that if rural women had the same productive endowments as men, including equal access to agricultural assets, education and market opportunities, their yields would increase by 20-30 percent, reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million.

What we need is working closely to enhance the capacity to upgrade agricultural production, and fight poverty and improve food security besides an increasing degree of investment devoted to socially inclusive approaches that empower women, youth and ethnic minorities, he added.

China has the world's largest e-commerce market with sales transaction for goods reaching over $4 trillion last year, he said adding that many well established sales platforms have been a pragmatic shift also for farmers and retailers who even directly sell to consumers within the country.

He said Pakistan can benefit from Chinese experience and on the other hand can adopt its pattern to achieve desired results of economic prosperity as the survival of the country worldwide depends exclusively on sound economy.