Abandonment of newborn girl child a sign of Pakistan's repressive mentality
Mar 09, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], March 9 : Pakistan is plagued with its frenzied obsession for a male heir and in the process scores of girl babies are abandoned in the country which speaks volumes of Pakistan's repressive mentality.
The recent incident in the Mianwali district of Punjab province in Pakistan unveiled the unfortunate state of affairs of a girl child in the country.
A seven-day-old infant was gunned down by her father named Shahzeb because his first child was a daughter instead of a son. The cruel father shot his baby five times, reported ARY News. The news has been circulating on social media. Users have shared pictures of the infant that can be seen dead.
The government in Pakistan is also notorious for skipping such heart-wrenching instances.
Pakistan's societal preference is nothing new as the newborn girls in Pakistan often go missing. Scores of infants are left in white metal Edhi cradles and the more unfortunate ones either get tossed in the nearby trash dumps or are conveniently buried elsewhere, reported The Daily Times.
The requirement for the time is to apprehend the culprits and put them behind bars. These deplorable incidents might make headlines however this is not enough as action needs to be taken against those who transpire such horrific crimes.
According to the last year's 'Global Gender Gap Report 2021', Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender parity index, that is, among the last four. It ranked seventh among eight countries in South Asia, only better than Afghanistan. Pakistan's gender gap has even widened by 0.7 per cent points in 2021 compared to 2020.
Notably, since the Imran Khan government came to power in August 2018, Pakistan's Global Gender Gap Index has worsened over time. In 2017, Pakistan ranked 143, slipping to 148 in 2018.
The report indicates that Pakistan needs 136 years to close the gender gap, with its existing performance rate. These statistics show that overall progress in reducing the gender gap is stagnant in Pakistan in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival, and political empowerment.
