Violence against Women and Girls is endemic in Pakistan
It is time for us all, women, men, girls, boys and key public actors to end violence against women and girls.
Public views on need of Financial Literacy, Pro-Child Policies; importance of women education; causes of inflation; polar ice caps.
Violence against women and girls—including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage—is endemic throughout Pakistan. Human rights defenders estimate that roughly 1000 women are killed in so-called honor killings every year. Pakistan’s Parliament did not pass a bill that sought to criminalize domestic violence; women rights activists criticized the government’s decision to refer the bill to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for review. The CII criticized the bill saying that it contained “un-Islamic injunctions” and would destroy the institution of the family.
Child marriage remains a serious problem in Pakistan, with 18 percent of girls marrying before the age of 18, and 4 percent marrying before 15. Women from religious minority communities remain particularly vulnerable to forced marriage. The government has done little to stop such marriages. Many perpetrators believe that violence toward women and girls is normal. Some 35 percent of women experience violence at the hands of their current or former partners in their lifetime.
Women and girls together account for 71 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally, with girls representing nearly three out of every four trafficked children. It is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and has long-term devastating effects on the lives of women, their communities and wider society. We can change the harmful beliefs at the core of this problem. What was learned can be unlearned. It is time for us all, women, men, girls, boys and key public actors to end violence against women and girls.
Bisma Narejo
Karachi Sindh
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Our youth are financial illiterate
The global financial literacy survey shows that only 26 percent of adults are financially literate here. This is an alarming situation for a country with more than 63 percent of its population below 30 years age. Majority of population is youth which is going to be the next generation of Pakistan and are going to lead Pakistan in future. If Pakistan wants to be out of poverty and economic crisis then in schools of every province of Pakistan financial literacy should be added as a subject in the course and students should be financial literate so that they can take right financial choices. Which will benefit our country a lot. When it comes to financial literacy five major components that students need to be taught are: earning, sending, saving borrowing and protecting. The school going children aged 13-17 and youth aged 18-29 years should be targeted only because they can process all this easily and implement it in their lives. Lastly every Pakistani should contribute to this initiative. Together, we can make a more financially literate and inclusive Pakistan. For a better future for one and all.
Haani Mustafa
Karachi Sindh
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Call for pro-child policies
Pakistan has over 80 million children suffering to fulfill their needs. This makes it crucial for interventions and policies to champion the rights of children efficiently. It is said that only 20.88% children live in urban areas and have access to fundamental needs. Furthermore 24% of Pakistan population lives below the poverty line; child labor is unfortunately quite common in our country and countless children are forced to work to support their families. Some of them work in hazardous condition without any safety measures. The children are supposed to focus on their education they should not be working strenuous jobs to make ends meet. Our government is responsible for ensuring that children have access to better life. This can only be done when more employment opportunities are created so that adults can earn decently to support their children.
Yasir Abbas
Karachi Sindh
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What Are Polar Ice Caps?
There is a lot of talk lately about the melting polar ice and its effects. But what is polar ice? And how does it affect our planet? A polar ice cap is a region of land at the North or South Pole of a planet that is covered with ice. Earth is not the only planet with polar ice caps; Mars also has them, though they are mostly frozen carbon dioxide.
Why are ice caps found at the poles? This has to do with the angle of sunlight reaching our round Earth. At the equator, sunlight hits the Earth at a 90° angle. This creates an environment of little variation in both temperature and hours of sunlight during the day.
In contrast, sunlight hits the Polar Regions at a more indirect angle. The same amount of sunlight reaches this part of Earth, but it gets spread out over a larger area, so the area receives less solar energy. You can see this with a flashlight. If you hold a flashlight vertically over a flat surface, you create a round, bright circle. If you tip the flashlight so that it is not exactly vertical, the circle of light elongates and decreases the intensity of the light. This happens because the same amount of light is spread over a greater area.
This limited solar energy makes for cold temperatures and very little precipitation (either rain or snow) all year round, which helps maintain the polar ice caps. Polar ice caps and glaciers hold more than three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater and provide feeding and resting platforms for polar bears, seals, and marine birds.
Ashfaque Sangi
Karachi Sindh
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How to control inflation?
Inflation ordinarily means the abnormal price hike of goods in economic terms. Inflation or rising galloping price is the result of increase in the supply or money than the supply of goods but there are countless factors that cause price hike in any county. In our country we see how fast our population is growing and how much more the people need in terms of food, fruits, clothes, shoes, soap and other articles of daily use. Our farms and factories are not producing food and goods according to the growing needs of the people as a result the prices of commodities shoot up and the government Is forced to print more currency notes to satisfy the people. This is exactly the inflation we are witnessing today.
The second cause of inflation and rising prices is rise in the standard of living of the people. With the greater demand for clothes, shoes, food and other commodities, their prices register a constant rise. Thus a rise in the demand is a sure sign of an increase in prices.
The third cause is the decrease in export and increase in import, as it is happening in our country. When we buy more and more commodities from other countries and sell in local market, they result in price hike being expensive. The costumer has to suffer heavily as government imposes taxes and duties on imported goods. Often the imports are made as the goods produced inside the country are heavily taxed.
The only solution to this giant problem of inflation is greater agriculture and industrial production greater export and higher taxes on imports to discourage it. In addition a control over population growth is utmost necessary.
Parveen Abro
Karachi Sindh
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Why education is important for women?
Education is essential part of our life. It is more important for women because educating a women means whole family is educated. It’s necessary for a women to be educated because women have to manage a lot of things. Unfortunately, the girls are forced to get married at early age by their parents, and they have to discontinue the education.
Why women have to suffer such discrimination? Why people don’t let them breath freely? I think first of all our main goal must be to educate a women. Now a days it’s very important for a women to get education to get their rights, to get freedom from imposed decisions and be able enough to take decisions what is right and wrong for them. I salute those families and parents who are imparting education to their child to make her independent, to make her strong enough that tomorrow she has ability to stand alone, make her positive thinker to give her bright future. Really they deserve appreciation. I think that every people have to change their negative thinking and should come forward to promote women education and support women through their struggling time. Early marriage is not a solution, educating a women is the solution.
Areeba Altaf Kanasiro
Larkana Sindh
