UNPRECEDENTED advancement in science and technologies during the last three decades has compelled developing countries to embark on a programme for developing their human capital for achieving a faster economic growth rate.
Since women have either equal or a major representation in population all over the globe, the need of developing women human capital is being felt with greater intensity now.
The size of human capital a country owns has assumed the status of a vital parameter to evaluate strength of its economy.
In case of Pakistan, the development of women human capital has not received due attention. It is mainly due to traditional family preferences for male child, which has become an important ingredient of country’s social culture and resultantly, one-sided male dominant thinking has resulted in grossly inadequate government investment in development of women human capital.
Latest Human Development report released by UNDP ranks Pakistan on 135th position, which apart from other factors, is due to gender inequality in the matter of education and health care. This has resulted in low literacy rate among women and high mortality rate during reproductive age, reflecting negatively on Human Development Indicators (HDIs).
Since women comprise almost 48 per cent of total population, their general impoverishment has been the main reason for Pakistan getting overall low ranking.
Despite positive development on economic front in recent years, the overall human development gap (refers to what a country must achieve on HDIs at a level of income and what actually is) has been widely negative. This is due to growing income inequalities, and poor being inflicted with disproportionate burden of taxes, tariffs, sales tax and steep rise in oil prices, which in turn has put a further crunch on education and health related expenditures on females of such families.
Income inequalities, apart from adding to ‘income poverty’ ultimately enhance ‘human poverty’, which according to UNDP Human Development Report for 2000 can be translated into a situation where there is overall blockage to environment to live long, healthy and creative life, to be acknowledged, to enjoy a decent standard of living with dignity, self-respect and respect for others.
Unfortunately, it is female component of poor families who ultimately get brunt of callous attitude of establishment towards development of social sector and resultantly today women’s participation in total labour force is only 28 per cent, three-fourth of which has been inducted in informal sector. They get a share of only 19 per cent in the total income.
Despite the rhetoric claims of successive governments since mid-eighties for bringing improvement in education and health sector, the real picture is totally different. Improvement in education and health sector need to be evaluated on the basis of growth of human capital.
Policies relating to education, health and all sectors of economy need to be tailored to meet demand of healthy, energetic and highly skilled work force and providing level playing field to both men and women for participation in all economic activities.
Education-wise, females are far lagging behind males even at primary level. Not only girls’ enrolment is lower than boys, the drop out rate is also faster among girls. Apart from initiative needed from the side of government, there is need to change mindset of people, totally engulfed by culture and traditions, emphasizing only reproductive role of women.
In order to develop women human capital and to enhance their participation in all economic activities, there is need to equip them with quality education in the areas of latest technology, business and finance, manufacturing, information technology, service sector and of course, agriculture and industry.
Discrimination with regard to women participation in economic process is a global phenomenon. Even in economically developed countries like USA females are under-represented at higher level of corporate sector, where males hold 95-97 per cent of managerial positions.
Women representation in high skilled and specialized jobs in industrial sector is only five per cent. This is despite the fact that USA is the most developed nation on the globe and majority of their literature on economics and women related issues speaks of the fact that ‘return on Investment’ in women human capital are as high as or even higher than those in men’s.
Increasing number of women in areas such as product development, marketing and advertising allows companies to maximize their market share by tapping into many segments of the consumer markets. Yet, it is also common there that families discriminate with regard to investment in higher education of their females.
In Pakistan also, there should be a realization at family level as well as society as a whole that women be treated as equal partners.
Fortunately, families are now more aware of socio-economic imbalances arising out of deprivation of female members from education, health care and other necessities of life. Now, at least in urban areas domestic partnership and role sharing is noticed.
Women are no doubt entering work force in increasing number, but they still remain under-represented in formal sector.
Despite their all out participation in farm-related rural activities, women remain obscure in statistics relating to rural active work force as they work on their own farms taking it as part of their routine household duty.
Female literacy rate in majority of rural areas of Sindh, Baluchistan and NWFP is even less than one per cent. Apart from general basic education, women need to be imparted vocational skills in the areas of livestock, dairy farming, fish pond cultivation, fruits and vegetable preservation and packing etc to enable them to get self- employed by setting up their own businesses and also to provide employment to others.
Girls in rural areas, after completing their secondary education, instead of going for general higher education must be prompted to take admission in agriculture universities and colleges to develop their expertise in research in new varieties of crops and also improving yield of all crops.
Environment in urban areas is slowly moving in favour of women. In recent years, opening of new areas of business for women has been witnessed. The bar has been removed from their entry in professions which have been exclusive preserve of men until now.
Disparity regarding wage / remuneration among men and women is also a factor dampening women urge to get involved in a gainful economic pursuit. This in turn is the outcome of women / girls’ deprivation of desired level of general and professional education and training needed for a job. However, now increasing awareness among women for their rights and potential opportunities for their participation in economic activities, a positive trend, is visible.
At family level also, redistribution of family resources is changing in favour of women. Girls’ entry into professional education like medicine, engineering, finance and business education has tremendously increased in recent years. It is mostly girls who secure top positions even in higher level professional examinations of all disciplines, effectively compete in job market and rightly demand level playing field for themselves in all work environments.
In order to promote investment in women human capital, it is imperative on the part of government that all official development policies are made gender sensitized, providing equal benefits and opportunities to all segments of population. Employment in civil services and public sector entities must be strictly on merit and not on special quota basis. Allocation of five or 10 per cent seats exclusively for women is a discouraging step rather an incentive for capable hands competing for a job on merit.
Family preferences for male child are also reflected from deplorable situation regarding health care and high mortality rate at reproductive age of women. In rural areas and urban pockets which are lagging behind in literacy rate, investment on health related needs of females of the family is negligible. But where women have achieved economic independence through employment / self-employment, they are found more responsive to the health care needs of entire family.
UNPRECEDENTED advancement in science and technologies during the last three decades has compelled developing countries to embark on a programme for developing their human capital for achieving a faster economic growth rate.
