KARACHI, March 3: Sindh minister for Population Welfare Dr Saeeda Malik has stressed the need of economic empowerment of the women for alleviating the poverty.

Despite the growing involvement of the women in economic activity, there existed a wide gap between the women’s earnings and those of the men, she said, referring to the Human Development Report-2002, according to which a woman’s earnings were equivalent to Rs916, against Rs2,884 of a man’s.

Speaking at a seminar on the Women Entrepreneur, organized by the Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology (KIET), the minister quoted the HD report and said that the population, earning two dollars or less per day exceeds 84 per cent of the total population in Pakistan and 70 per cent of these poverty stricken people are women. The situation urges enhanced participation of women in economic activities, she added.

The employment of women in agriculture has been estimated at 66 per cent of the total female population, whereas the male employment ratio, in this sector, is only 41 per cent of their total. On the contrary in public sector, in pay scales from 16 to 22, the percentage of women has improved to 9 per cent, whereas in lower scales it continues to be 5 per cent only, for the last 10 years, she said.

She said that the women entrepreneurship holds a pivotal role in economic development of the country and added that only those societies can excel that provide equal opportunities to both men and women, for proving their worth and playing their part in economic development.

Ms Akram Khatoon, former president of the First Women Bank, Mrs Arjumand Qazi, Ms Fatima Tazeen, Sameea Omer, afshan Khan, Fatima Iqbal, Air Commodore, Mohammad Zahir Hussain, and Col Raza also spoke at the seminar.—PPI