RECOMMENDATIONS TO SAARC TO EMPOWER

WOMEN IN SOUTH ASIA

N O V E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 4

BANGLADESH RECOMMENDATIONS

Abolish Article 10, as it is a blatantly obvious hindrance on progressive decisions coming out of the SAARC conventions.

Create a regional center specifically focused on women’s empowerment and coordinate directly with leading NGOs, feminist groups, and their leaders to create more consolidated and streamlined mechanism for engaging in collaborative research, training, knowledge transfer and awareness raising between the eight countries involved in SAARC.

Create a system of SAARC sponsored magnet secondary schools, strategically distributed amongst the eight member nations. The schools would be state funded, free to attend, and have a gender quota of at least 50 percent female student body. While providing well-rounded education, the magnet focus would be on social sciences and human rights in the context of historical and contemporary South Asia.

Bring female politicians from grassroots and mid-level governmental bodies together in an annual SAARC-wide regional forum. This will be an opportunity to share successes and pitfalls from the differing experiences of female politicians across South Asia in a collective effort to provide support for each other, collaborate and celebrate the successes of women's involvement.

SAARC can assist in reducing the lack of security and benefits that women in the informal sector face by providing small business loans to women to start their own legitimate businesses. This monetary support would assist in setting up insurance for employees, as well as other benefits, in an effort to provide safer, and more reliable working conditions to women. The basis of the Grameen Bank may be used to set up the structure of such a loan system.

Create an educational outreach program in which female university students rotate through rural, predominantly illiterate areas and work as academic tutors

in local schools. These women would offer additional

academic support to youth and assist in enhancing the

mentality that female education and literacy is a positive

asset to girls and their communities.

INDIA RECOMMENDATIONS

NEPAL RECOMMENDATIONS Create a verification/certification program for rural

employers and enact an awareness campaign to ensure the population understands the meaning of certification, which ensures that employers are inspected and all employees are under some form of a contract that includes a minimum wage and guaranteed safe working conditions.

Establish a regional quota system across SAARC-supported schools to increase female teaching positions, to be scaled up each year.

Help member nations invest in modern agricultural technology through micro-lending.  This would create a new job sector for both men and women and would increase yields to the point that women (and many other citizens) would no longer be tied to agriculture for subsistence and would give them the ability to move into other job markets.

PAKISTAN RECOMMENDATIONS Literacy: We recommend that SAARC ask the Technical

Committee on Women, Youth, and Children to create a program advocating for girls’ education and literacy. We suggest that committee members from all over South Asia work to communicate with local religious leaders on the necessity of sending girls to school. By interacting with religious leaders, especially in rural areas of South Asia where education of girls has proven to be the lowest, collaborative solutions on local levels will be enforced. Thus, members of the community will eventually send their daughters to school despite financial circumstances and South Asia can see the literacy rate of adult women increase in following years.

Employment: SAARC should recommend that governments expand the textile industry as cotton is produced as a cash crop throughout South Asia and its potential for capital has yet to be fully realized. An expanded textile industry would provide jobs for countless women who are currently left out of the formal employment. Importing and exporting goods to and from various areas of South Asia will boost trade and align with the goals of SAARC.

Political Participation: Throughout South Asia, women are often unable to find jobs because of their illiteracy and are unable to receive an education for cultural and political reasons. We recommend that SAARC encourage countries to expand their military to include more women, allowing them to gain necessary employment skills and basic education. SAARC needs to compile a committee on the advancement of women in the military as well, to ensure women’s participation. Women’s involvement in the military will open up doors for political participation, as has been proven for men in South Asia. It is our hopes that through a surge of women in the military, there will be more women entering the authority system and thus a rise in political participation throughout the region.

 

PAKISTAN RECOMMENDATIONS (cont’d)

SRI LANKAN RECOMMENDATIONS Establishment of Technical and Vocational Institute for Women (preferably in Sri Lanka) where the literacy rate is high and has great potential to train a pool of female technicians in the fields of information technology, para-engineering, carpentry, etc. This kind of institution at the SAARC level will give women a better chance in the nontraditional job market and deter gender-based career divisions.

Establishment of Leadership Training Facilities for Women: To further promote the political participation of women, SAARC should create ‘leadership institutions for women’ in the SAARC nations that have low female political participation to vital leadership skills

Promoting Cross-Regional Exchange Visits Amongst Professional Women: should occur at the political and administrative levels to provide women the opportunity to share their experiences, exchange information, and provide inspiration for each other.