In Constitution of Pakistan,
the Article 34 states that steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of
women in all spheres of national life. Does the very article in constitution,
seems to be improvised all across the country in letter and spirit?
Unfortunately the answer is negative.
Women comprise more than 50 per cent of Pakistan’s total population. Despite
this, on an average, the situation of Pakistani women vis-à-vis men is one of
systemic gender subordination, although there have been attempts by the
government and enlightened groups to elevate their status in society.
You might be reading the newspaper or listening to news bulletins concerned with
the incidents and accidents happening daily with women in Pakistan. Our history
values women, but the truth we face today is that in present day Pakistan, a
woman is regarded to be a second grade citizen. On one hand we are striving to
acquire a great pace in development, on the second hand pathetic conditions for
women to the dejected level nullify this effort. Not only this, cruel acts like
acid throwing, dowry, rape, domestic violence, harassment and lots more prevails
in our society even today. One of major issue that is included in this inventory
is the lack of basic health facilities that never meets the standards of the
other developing countries in the region.
Women empowerment is the basic need of Pakistan today. Creation of a nation
where women can take independent decisions for their development and welfare of
the society is need of the day. By only believing things can be changed with a
channelized route for the empowerment of women do nothing without any pragmatic
approach. Less is being done as some ground level actions focused towards
abrogating the social attitude and prevailing practices in our society regarding
the women health issues in remote areas of country. A large scale series of
interventions to endow a healthy and decent lifestyle to women of the society is
required instead.
The Governments must focus on increasing women’s access and control over
resources. Hence, it ought to arrange free education for the downtrodden girls
and women because only an educated woman can build a healthy family, society and
nation. Whatever civil society organizations performed so far is also a meager
contribution to this aim. However the concept of improvising e-Health not only
to improve the health facilities in general but for women in particular can do a
lot.
New information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones and
the Internet are considered important instruments for advancing social and
economic development throughout the world. The concept of e-Health refers to the
use of ICTs and telemedicine in different aspects of healthcare including
healthcare delivery, administration, education and communication.
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication technologies to provide healthcare
services across geographic, temporal, social, and cultural barriers. The
delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by
healthcare professionals using information and communications technologies for
the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of
diseases and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education
of healthcare providers, all in the interest of advancing health and their
communities. e-Health has, therefore, now become an umbrella term, which
encompasses both, health informatics and Tele-health.
While there is a growing focus on the potential impact of e-Health applications
and practices in developing countries, little attention is given to how the
technologies can address women’s health concerns. e-Health has become a
necessity in the Pakistan’s healthcare delivery system, in the backdrop of most
of her populations living in rural and hard areas, with little or no access to
expert healthcare, disparities in the healthcare delivery-facilities in urban
and rural areas, neglected women & child health and poverty level above 30%.
Access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are
considered important for improving health outcomes for women in the developing
world. ICTs are increasingly being used in different aspects of healthcare
including healthcare delivery, administration, education and communication,
broadly known as e-Health. Over the past ten years, many international
development organizations have sought to introduce effective and innovative
e-Health solutions. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a
resolution for an e-Health strategy and established the Global e-Health
Observatory which will monitor e-Health systems and service particularly in low
and middle-income countries.
While there is a growing focus on the potential and impact of e-Health in the
developing world, few observations give attention to how ICTs can address
women’s health concerns or how particular interventions help to improve women
health in remote areas. While new ICTs like mobile phones and the Internet are
increasingly more available worldwide now a days that enables the women to have
the information about various facilities regarding health. How can ICTs play a
role in providing health care services for women to rural and remote regions of
developing countries like Pakistan?
In terms of practical implementation of ICT interventions the analysts suggest
that there is an overall gender bias in ICT projects) highlighting three reasons
for this bias, 1) women are rarely involved in the needs assessment of ICTs for
development; 2) attitudes that high-end information technology ‘is not for
women’ who are still being treated as passive recipients of information and not
as active information users and communicators; and 3) there is considerable
delay in addressing the limitations faced by women in accessing supposedly
‘public’ information spaces.
Moreover rural women are more disadvantaged as compared to younger, literate or
wealthier urban women in countries with entrenched patriarchal structures, the
nature of ICTs access and use is influenced by discriminatory practices that
exclude women. The sense of such preconceptions or prejudices must be mitigated
through media campaigns and awareness projects. Applications of e-Health for
women can be grouped into four main areas. Knowledge of e-Health & Telemedicine
techniques is needed by the planners, administrators and health care
professionals along with its integration methods with the services of their
domain. Most decision makers, managers, health care professionals and citizens
in most countries lack basic information on telemedicine services and potential.
This has resulted in misconceptions, resistance to telemedicine and relative
lack of progress in project initiation.
The implementation of telemedicine & e-Health requires multidisciplinary
collaboration, with the active participation of IT specialists,
telecommunication operators and health care professionals. There is a need to
bridge the gap between these communities at all levels. Concerned National
ministries also need to work together towards introduction of a telemedicine &
e-Health policy and achievement of universal service where emergency services,
health and social information systems are concerned. The creation of national
associations, committees with membership of women MNAs and MPAs, task forces and
the like, with a multidisciplinary composition, is necessary to bring together
IT, telecommunication and health professionals, lawyers, industry and others to
assist with awareness-raising at a national level on the issue. The process
should start with conducting a women especially rural based requirement
analysis. The analysis should address the definition of objectives, functions,
and utilization of health information and assistance for women in the evaluation
of existing information systems.
Above all nothing can be done without financial assistance from government’s end
so a sufficient disbursement that mitigates all the issues regarding financial
aspects of such an initiative should be allocated. The infrastructural and
technical support projects are required to be in place to provide a common sense
of urgency, mechanism and some funding support for large-scale adoption of ICTs
by various departments of the central and provincial governments. Such a
catalytic action, and perhaps creating an environment for competitive
performance, is very much needed in the initial phase. It has been especially
useful for provinces that are otherwise slow on the take, vis a vis ICTs, and
they may also be the ones that most need reform in that area. Department of IT
can give a technical support to e-health initiatives of various departments of
health ministry regarding women at the central and province levels, including
through listed consultants. Center of Women Initiative for E-Women has playing a
vital role in empowering women. Such should be supported and assisted by federal
and provincial governments. It may come as a surprise to many that for more than
half population; women, so crucial to the future of country, there has never
been any dedicated e-health implementation for them in Pakistan. One would
expect to have some kind of a detailed policy document based on due
consultations with all stakeholders, which provides the vision for e-health for
women in Pakistan, integrating governance reform priorities like right to
information and improved community participation and monitoring.