16 October 2004	Saturday	01 Ramazan 1425

HYDERABAD, Oct 15: Every year in Pakistan, around 750,000 children die due to abject poverty, 30,000 women die during delivery and about 1,000 women are killed on the pretext of karo-kari.

This was revealed at a workshop on the rights of women organized by the Aurat Foundation here on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, the regional coordinator of the foundation, Aslam Brohi, said that the foundation was striving to create awareness among women about their rights.

He urged conscientious people to perform their due rule in furtherance of this objective. He said that due to poverty, 750,000 ailing children up to five years of age, 12 per cent of them girls, died every year in the country because their parents had no money for their medical treatment.

He stressed the need for paying attention to the health of children. The programme officer of the foundation, Bushra Shah, said that 30,000 women died every year due to delivery complications before they reached hospitals.

She said that it was duty of the society to provide adequate medical facilities to the women folk. Noureen Rajput condemned violence against women and said that 1,000 women were killed on the false charge of adultery and women were subjected to violence on flimsy pretexts, disclosing that from 1994 to 2001, 4,875 women were burnt alive.

Citizen Action Committee leader Akhtar Mallah said that indifferent attitude of the authorities and the society could be gauged from the fact that an old woman, Mai Jindo, was still running from pillar to post to seek justice for the families of the victims of the Tando Bahawal carnage.

Ghaffar Malik, Faiz Solangi and others also spoke on the occasion. The office-bearers of the foundation said that workshops would be held at the union council and district level to educate women for the next local body elections.