ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has yet to establish District Commission on the Status of Women (DCSW), a body to monitor and report cases of gender-based violence to provincial body, in 14 districts of the province.

The establishment of DSCW, a statutory body, is an extension of Provincial Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), which was established in 2009 under an Act of the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Under this Act, the provincial government requires the establishment of DCSWs in each district of the province immediately after the commencement of the Act.

The DCSW bodies were only notified in 11 districts of the province since the establishment of the provincial commission, said head of Association for Behaviour and Knowledge Transformation (ABKT) Shad Begum at the conclusion of a two-day training workshop here on Monday. However, those were yet to be functional, she added.

The bodies notified in 11 districts are also non-functional

The training workshop was attended by 16 women, 10 male government officials and three female district education officers from the three districts -- Upper and Lower Dir and Malakand. These women have been recommended by district social welfare officers to become members of DCSW.

However, the provincial government has yet to notify DSCW in these three districts like 11 other districts of the province.

The establishment of these commissions was also aimed to improve women participation in the policy making and election etc at the district level.

Currently, the low participation of women is also clear from the Global Gender Gap Report 2014 of the World Economic Forum, which rated Pakistan at the second lowest in the global ranking.

This gender blind development planning in Pakistan is one of the major causes of poor socio-economic indicators for women as reflected in the report.

To bridge the gap between citizens and state and bring in women perspectives to development, Ms Shad said that the workshop was convened to train human capital for the proposed DCSW in the remaining districts.

The ABKT, through a MoU with the social welfare department, has organised capacity building events to orient the members of DCSW on their roles and functions, particularly on the gender sensitive planning and budgeting.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is gearing up for the local government elections in April-May 2015. So the district women commission will have an important role in oversight of the district offices with regard to women issues and role in preparation of gender-sensitive planning and budgeting at the district level.

DCSW is a statutory body with the functions to monitor and report cases of gender-based violence to PCSW; maintain databases of cases of violence against women, and to refer victims of violence against women to protection centres and shelter homes (Darul Amans).

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2015

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