Economic Empowerment of Rural Pakistani Women

For a very long time, Pakistani girls were considered to be born, just to grow up, get married and be able to make food for their husbands. It was not until the women empowerment programs in Pakistan came forward and made everyone reconsider their ancient thinking that they enabled the Pakistani women realise that nobody but their ‘own self’ can decide what they are destined to do.

Nobody but their own self will choose what they want to do with their lives. They motivated the women to realise their worth in the society and made them aware of their economic and social rights.

Today it is not just the urban women who work shoulder to shoulder with men but we get to see so many rural women working sufficiently well, proving their talents in so many important aspects and helping with the economic development of the country.

The literacy rate of women in rural areas is not very high which is why we do not get to see much of them working in offices but if we talk about professions like weaving, sewing, hand embroidery, farming, crafting, agriculture related trading and fishing, they master it like a boss.

They do not have sufficient access to technology, health resources and financial resources, but despite all the drawbacks they tend to face; they are far better than the men or any other urban woman in the aforementioned fields.

Women empowerment programs in Pakistan are doing a great job in encouraging rural women and their family towards gaining education. The example of which is Arfa Karim and Malala Yousafzai, about both of whom the whole world must have heard.

Their families belonged to villages of Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan, and Sawat, KPK, Pakistan respectively. These empowerment programs are educating them with their legal right to vote, gain education, work as they please, earn, save money and start their own businesses.

Many women empowerment programs in Pakistan are helping rural women gain confidence and making them believe that they are no less than the men. The woman who lives in village has minimal control over decision-making and has to listen to the male-head of the family, which is why it is difficult for them to go out and work.

These programs are polishing their traditional talents of embroidery, hand-crafting and pickling the vegetable while remaining indoors. Such programs are teaching them how to prepare the finished product for selling in today’s competitive market. From product packaging to product marketing, they are providing women with all the necessary details they need to know in order to market their product successfully.

Their objective is to turn a Pakistani food making rural woman into an all-rounder entrepreneur. Tens of thousands of women have benefitted from the program as per the record.

The rural woman, today, is actually lending a hand while increasing the country’s GNP. Kudos to all the women empowerment programs in Pakistan!