Discrimination represents a
significant social problem in Pakistan as well as throughout the world. Girls
face discrimination everywhere in the world. They often receive less food than
boys do, have less entree to schooling and work long hours. Why can’t we see the
helpless agony of the girl child in our society? Their ignorance will certainly
beget to forget our cause, which is still fractured in the regions.
In societies where a male child is regarded as more valuable to the family,
girls often are denied the right of life, denied the right to name and
nationality. And by being married off early or forced to stay at home and help
in domestic chores, girls are often denied the right to education and all the
advantages that go with it, the right to associate freely and the rights
accompanying unjustified deprivation of liberty. These all are basic humiliation
from family to girls when boys are regarded as the pillars of tomorrow.
The convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted in 1989 and by now
ratified by most countries of the world, provide an agenda for action in
identifying enduring forms of inequality and discrimination against girls,
abolishing practices and traditions detrimental to the fulfillment of their
rights and defining an effective strategy to promote and protect those rights.
But implementation is necessary to ensure positive changes. Other than the CRC,
the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
is the most extensive and widely ratified international agreement promoting the
rights of girls and women.
When we talk about the education system, it reflects the inequality found
outside the classroom. Girls the world over are less likely than their brothers
to be attending primary school. In some cases, where a decision has to be made
about which children to send to school, it is commonly seen that parents decide
to invest in their sons’ education rather than their daughters’. This may
reflect the fact that upon marriage, daughters may no longer contribute to
family income and are therefore not seen as worth investing in.
There are several gender discrimination related consequences of child labor as
well. Most obvious are the problems faced by girls who have been sexually
exploited. Also girls working as child domestic workers are often denied medical
treatment when required since they are domestic help and do not share the same
status as the other children in the household. Children who suffer an accident
at work may also feel that this is their own fault for being clumsy or bad at
their job, and the adults and medical personnel who they encounter may have the
same attitude.
Education is the tool that can help break the pattern of gender discrimination
and bring lasting changes for women in developing countries like ours. Pakistan
has for decades grossly under-invested in education, and in particular, girls’
education. Girls’ education also means comprehensive change for a society.
Educated women are essential to ending gender bias, starting by reducing the
poverty that makes discrimination even worse in the developing world.