MCM431 Assignment No. 01
Development Communication
Semester Spring 2011
Question No.1 (5)
What you understand by the term Sustained Development?
SOLUTION:-
According to the WCED, this is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Sustainable development implies economic growth together with the protection of environmental quality, each reinforcing the other. The essence of this form of development is a stable relationship between human activities and the natural world, which does not diminish the prospects for future generations to enjoy a quality of life at least as good as our own. Many observers believe that participatory democracy, undominated by vested interests, is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development (Source: Mintzer, 1992).
OR
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development respects the limited capacity of an ecosystem to absorb the impact of human activities.
Question # 2:-
Women Development is on the top list agenda of United Nations. Why this phenomenon is important for Pakistan? Support your answer with valid reasons
Solution:-
The need for integrating women in the development process was placed on the international agenda in 1975, when the UN observed International Women's Year.
Among the many concrete steps taken in this regard after the 1975 world conference on women was the creation of two UN bodies, UNIFEM and INSTRAW.
A result of the energetic advocacy of women at the first world conference on women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was established by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1976 to provide direct support to development projects for women. Originally set up as the Voluntary Fund for the Decade for
Women, the Fund was asked to help improve the living standards of women in developing countries by addressing their concerns through providing direct technical and financial support and by promoting the inclusion of women in the decisionmaking process of mainstream development programmes. In 1985, the Fund became an autonomous body in association with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and was renamed UNIFEM.
Sometimes described as a bridge between international organizations, policy makers and disadvantaged women, UNIFEM is an aid to and advocate for women of the developing world. Currently, UNIFEM works at the country level through its 10 regional offices. Among its priority areas are trade and industry, credit, science and technology, agriculture and food security, and policy-making and national planning.
It also targets critical issues on the global agenda to ensure that gender is included in international policies such as those related to refugees and displaced persons, violence against women, human rights, global governance and environment. UNIFEM has recently established a woman's human rights programme aimed at strengthening the capacity of women's organizations that work on human rights.
The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), established in 1975 by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the first world conference on women, is an autonomous body within the UN system with a mandate to carry out research, training and information activities worldwide to promote women as key agents for sustainable development.
Operating from its headquarters in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the
Institute performs research projects to identify barriers that impede women's equality in the process of social, economic and political development. INSTRAW analyzes existing research material by interacting and working with Governments, UN agencies and academic institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations and other entities. INSTRAW's experience has proved that the greatest problem affecting women is invisibility. With this purpose, INSTRAW develops new ways of understanding, new methodologies and statistics for training programmes and methods linked to issues such as:
• Economic empowerment;
• Collection of statistics and indicators on women's work in the formal and informal sectors;
• Availability of statistics on elderly women;
• Women and time-use;
• Statistics on women in the informal sector in industry, trade and services;
• Migration of women and the methodological issues involved in the measurement and analysis of internal and international migration;
• Women, water and sanitation and women and water management;
• New and renewable sources of energy;
• Women and environmental management;
• The role of women in environmentally sound and sustainable development;
• The image and participation of women in alternative and mass media;
• Gender and development studies, including training material.
We look at the history and our religion, the women were allowed to do business and they were quite good at it, biggest example is Hazrat Khadija (may peace be upon her) the first wife of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (may peace be upon him). The role of women in country’s development and rapid growth is simply can not be ignored but the fact remains that their potential is not being fully utilised in Pakistan as yet.
Women in Pakistan are expected to adopt the role of a house wife and to serve the whole family. I have seen alot of talented, highly educated ladies who could become very good entrepreneurs, are spending their time in managing the house and the family despite their strong urge to set up their own businesses. The reason comes out as usual “they are not allowed by their families or husbands”
I consider that violation of basic human rights that our religion gave the women 1400 years ago. The man’s ego wont allow his life partner to earn equally or more than him.
The in laws think that a women’s role is just to look after them. Come on folks! She has a heart too, she has her own dreams which she always put aside to play her role as a house wife. In my opinion women are far more better than us in time management,
they are task oriented, better and multi tasking and far better in communication skills
if they have a solid educational back ground. They manage kids, manage the house,
look after her husbands parents and at times whole family, she manages the routine
house hold, she is very good at budgeting and savings, very good administrator, very
good at handling stress and pressure, good in convincing through logic and above all
very patient. So why waste such a tremendous talent?
If we go through the statistics, nearly 65% of the female doctors dont do jobs after
their marriages, 80% of business graduates sit at home after marriages, not even 10 %
of the educated women are enterprenuers and running their own business on their
own, their scope of jobs is always limited to teaching, customer care, call centres,
designing, training and fashion. They need a fresh break as they could do far better
than that. Men by nature in Pakistan are un-organised and dont contribute any thing
to manage the house apart from bringing the money to run it. The lady of the house
needs his support as she works like a robot in a monotonous routine for years. Our
Prophet may peace be up on him, used to do all chores at home by himself despite
having more than one wives. But here in our society, the man needs his wife to get his
house organised, his kids very well looked after, special attention to his parents, a nice
clean and calm house, a VIP treatment to his friends and relatives, his ward robe
organised, take care of family affairs, attend the family functions with enthusiasm,
manage house hold from groceries to shopping for him and kids. If she could do all
that why not try talents in her field of interest if she wans to try her luck in business
or in a job.
I have met a lot of muli-talented ladies who are running big businesses excellently and
managing their house equally good. In order to grow as nation we need their presence
in all fields whether its education, IT, Telecom, Small and medium enterprises,
Textiles, Banking, Health care, Fashion, Electronic and print media, HR and all
other possible venues for them.
The biggest support they need is from their life partners who could convince their
family members that they can do far better than what they are already doing
provided given a fair chance to them to perform and prove their worth. They need to
join hands with men to contribute to the over all growth of the country but for that
they need equal opportunities in the jobs and assurance from their families that they
can pursue their carriers in the way they want with out disturbing their family life. It
is often considered that women who want to do job or want to set up their own
businesses want an un necessary freedom and can be victom of modern society evils.
But this is not the case, men have always kept double standards, they do things which
they are not supposed to do in accordance with our religious norms and social taboos
but on the other hand they would always build barriers and walls around women so
that they can not get to know whats going on in the world around them and lead a life
of a well’s frog! If men know how to carry themselves in the society so should be the
women, its a mere dillema that men always considered them the best in decision
making and handling crisis but I have seen working women performing miracles in the
work they do by adopting firm business and work ethics and above all cause of their
natural ability to cope hard work and stress. It time for all women to stand up and
speak for their basic living right and with their presence already in the national
assembly, raise their voice to get his right to change the world around them which is
wrongly dominated by the men. they have education, talent and a strong will to
compete men in all fields of practical life. there presence should not be limited to
certain agreed and determined fields by our society, they should be given a chance to
pursue their dreams, earn their own livelihood, become less dependent on men who
always use women’s dependency as their weakness. We need a rapid growth to have a
strong stance against the overall economic turmoil in the country and across the
world and for that we should allow women to come forward and join hands with men
to be part of the progress and growth of Pakistan in the days to come.
Economic indicators suggest that life will be very tough in the coming years, a single
earning hand in a house hold wont be sufficient to survive. Governement can not
always come to our support and if you talk of Pakistani governments officials and our
leaders, they are too busy in making a life time fortune in the time they are in
government and power, so realistically we should not be relying on them at all. men
and women have to work together to survive in the coming days. Our society has
already seeing a change where kids now work and study at colleges at the parallel to
cover their education expenses and the next step would be the partnership of men and
women to carry the burdon of expenses by equal sharing. I would request all women
with bachelors, masters and PHD degrees and doing nothing, to come forward and
join hands with all of us. They are as much entitled as men to choose their destiny in
life, its not correct that if they are married they lead their life on men’s dictation
whether its right or wrong. Our religion allows women to work and earn with ceratin
conditions which are not at all difficult to manage. Its a dilemma that we would hire
the most beautiful lady we can in our office but we will not allow our wives to go out
and work with a reason that our society is not good enough to allow them to work
outside. What is the out side world for women in Pakistan, its a world full of men like
us who should learn to give respect to women at the work place then the society
would easily accomodate alot more working women. We should develop a working
environment where all parents and husbands send their daughters and wives with out
any worry and second thoughts to their work places.
Its not all about dominating women, it should be all about accomodating them when
they already sacrifice each and every second of their life for our comfort and ease. I
am positive that Women in Pakistan certainly deserve more space and confidence
from us than they are currently getting. Its their life as well but we are currently
trying to control each movement in their life like puppet masters controlling the
moves and moods of a puppet but women are human beings not robots or puppets,
they have likes and dislikes, they have ambitions, they have plans for themselves also,
they want to get fame out of their work and business, they want to achieve success,
they want to be treated well, they need an understaning life partner, they need us to
provide comfort to them in life, they need their share in the progress and development
of Pakistan, they need to be in the field of work they find appropriate, they need to
equal chances to earn their livelihoods, they need to maintain their grace and dignity,
they need a bunch of family members around them who show confidence in them and
ensure their full support to let them see success in life.
But a society dominated by men in Pakistan is hardly doing it, they want the out side
world of theirs a total secret to their female life partners, they dont share rather they
snatch and impose, they heart feelings rather then boosting the morales with
encouragement. We had a female head of the state by the name of Ms. Benazir
Bhutto, whos was miles ahead of all male politicians of her time in terms of courage,
determination, know how of internal and external politics, planning for the
betterment of the deprived people in Pakistan and above all had all necessary
administrative and managerial skills to manage and run a government dominated by
95% of men. She was better than most of them, if we cant accept it we should have a
look at the independt analysis of experts and specialists in the field who still rate her
death as a huge loss to Pakistan and democratic movement here.
Can we be a far more open minded and realistic when it comes to possible good role of
women in Pakistan’s growth? I strongly urge that its about time that we all do it.
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