Women constitute half of
Pakistan’s population, yet they have remained marginalized for a very long time
despite being given an exalted status in Islam. To be educated, to work for the
welfare of the family, to marry the spouse of choice are rights that a woman is
born with, however social practices have made life miserable for many. The need
to empower women has not only become a fad, but also a dire requirement in this
global era of awareness and awakening. But empowerment remains a distant dream
without economic independence and education.
Seeing the need to empower our women folk, the government has initiated some
programs and scheme for this purpose. With so many of the population not working
and participating, the state of economy can never become better. The government
is focused and a lot of work is being done in this regard. Maryam Nawaz, the
chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Program elaborated that there are 98
million women in Pakistan. Also, there are 60 special seats reserved for women
In Pakistan’s National Assembly, Women are 25% of the workforce in the country,
(especially in rural areas. They are actively contributing in agriculture,
industry, banks, telecommunication and marketing. However, there is still room
for making life easier for them and to motivate others as well.
In this backdrop, Maryam Nawaz’ initiative of women empowerment through easy
loan schemes is a much needed and commendable one. Further, the commitment of
the government towards empowerment of women becomes apparent through the fact
that it has launched initiatives to impart vocational training to women through
Youth Skill Development Scheme. Women would be professionally trained in skills
like cookery, bakery and would be provided a monthly stipend worth 3-5 thousand
rupees, for a period of 6 months. The government will bear their fee as a sum of
800 million rupees have been allocated for this program.
In a meeting, the chairperson highlighted, “government intends to promote
entrepreneurial skills in women. Prime minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme has
reserved 50% loans for women. This scheme includes many women-specific trades
like bakery and confectionary, catering and decoration services, Montessori
school, beauty clinic, interior decoration, day care centre and boutique.
Besides the provision of business loans to the women, government is also focused
on providing them technical training through handholding program”.
Maryam Nawaz is keen to see the scheme implemented in letter and spirit. She has
directed the authorities to form a frame work that is workable and user
friendly. All transactions and information will be available on the internet. A
website has been developed for this purpose to facilitate the loan seekers and
thousands have visited the site up till now. Anyone wanting to seek a loan for
business purposes will also receive assistance of experts and professionals.
This, I believe is a very laudable strategy that is sure to meet with success.
The Prime Ministers Small Business Loan Scheme, under the Prime Minister’s Youth
Programme, is being termed as a milestone in many ways. It will not only lend
empowerment to the women, but will also create new jobs for the unemployed
youth. Looked at in a long term perspective, it will be a major factor in
altering the poverty index of the country. PM’s Youth Loan Scheme is coming
forth as the vision of the government to transform microfinance in to a dynamic
industry. This is something that other nations have been integrating in their
economy for a long time now. When integrated into the financial system, the
economy at large will receive a much needed boost.
Like every new project, this one too holds many issues that have yet to be
resolved. The ground reality of every area differs and problems with it have to
be addressed and sorted out. Work is being done on issues like awareness level
of the end beneficiaries of the scheme, time lag, problems faced by the
applicants, information sharing and its verification, types of business the
indigenous population of every region was interested in and so on.
The PM’s loan scheme that aims to help young entrepreneurs to initiate their own
businesses is designed to provide subsidized financing for one hundred thousand
beneficiaries through National Bank of Pakistan and First Women Bank. SMEDA has
been tasked with an advisory role in the implementation of this scheme. It is
commendable, how, despite being in a very tight financial situation, the
government has made the loan scheme an easy to get and easy to manage. For this
purpose special counters have been set up at banks and SMEDA offices to
facilitate applicants and guide them. The best thing about this scheme of loans
is that they will be interest free and in accordance with the Islamic laws. The
burden one has on the soul for taking loans on interest weighs one down. The
mere fact that we have to succeed yet we must remain within the confines of
religious practices and norms is essential.
This will also serve as the first step towards eradication of unislamic laws of
banking in the country. There has to be a starting point, and why not in such a
manner that rampant issue of unemployment be addressed and through loans that
have a 50% quota for women, our cottage industry will also flourish. Bangladesh
and the concept of micro-finance loan system is one of the most successful model
for us as well. It is something that ought to have been initiated long ago, but
previous regimes apparently had no such plans. However, the PM’s loan scheme is
a much larger and comprehensive program that targets almost every segment of
society that has the need to advantage from it. It includes young people
including male and female. For people above 40 years of age Youth Business Loans
will allow them to invest in business and be self-employed.
The initiative is being greatly welcomed by the people and keeping in mind the
growing population it will be nearly impossible to create jobs for young people
and especially women, thus it will ensure self-employment for a multitude. One
of the best means to revive the dying economy is to create job opportunities.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif, like her father, believes that youth are the building
blocks of the country and they are the ones playing a central role in making the
nation prosperous. The young generation is very important for the government,
and the fact can be seen through the comprehensive nature of the Youth Scheme
Also, the laptop scheme that distributes 100,000 laptops annually is also driven
by this interest too. The government is eager in seeing Pakistan becoming a
nation with educated and empowered youth that will take on its reins in coming
times.(Ends)