Lahore, Sep 13 (IANS) Pakistani women are subject to increasing abuse, with 7,200 cases of violence reported last year – a staggering 5,000 of them in Punjab alone – a new report says quoting official figures.
The report of NGO White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) released Wednesday says that violence against women had taken many shapes and forms regardless of geographical location, culture or wealth.
According to the report, sexual harassment at the workplace, abuse, beating, and rape were some of the forms of violence against women.
WRC National Campaign Coordinator Omar Aftab said the interior ministry in its annual report had said cited 7,200 cases of violence against women – an alarming 5,000 of them in Punjab.
According to Aftab, the reasons for violence against women could be classified as social, economic and psychological.
“In our society, the main reasons were poor economic conditions of the household. Women also had to bear the brunt of men’s failure to make a decent living,” Daily Times Thursday quoted him as saying.
Toward this, WRC had launched a two-pronged campaign: one to spread awareness of women’s rights in a male dominated society, and to bring about a societal and behavioural change.
WRC’s final goal was the elimination of all forms of violence against women, for which it had involved a number of young people in its campaign in order to ensure effective change.
Various methods of interacting with the youth had been employed, ranging from staging plays that questioned men’s behaviour with women, and treating children who had been exposed to domestic violence.
Students of Forman Christians College (FCC), Government College University (GCU) and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) had participated in theatre activities under the guidance of WRC to highlight issues of domestic violence and to inculcate respect for women among the youth, Aftab pointed out.
He said that WRC aimed to expand its operations to southern Punjab in the cities of Khanewal, Dera Gazhi Khan and Rajanpur. It would also launch public-private partnership projects in collaboration with the Punjab government, as also with district governments in the next phase.
Pakistan’s WRC is part of the International WRC (IWRC) that publishes annual reports in 40 countries on violence against women.
The IWRC is an initiative to end violence against women that was started in 1991 by a group of Canadian men to end violence against women.