Job market in Pakistan is facing a severe crisis of “demand and supply” and in order to overcome the labor shortage, women must be encouraged to come forward and play their role in economic revival in the post corona period in addition to earning a permanent nitch for females in the industrial sector of Pakistan.
Exchanging MoU documents with Lubna Bait of “She Means Work” (SMW), Engineer Hafiz Ihtasham Javed, president of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), said that share of women in industrial sector was already very meager while corona has further trimmed it to the bare minimum. He said that due to the positive economic indicators, the industrial sector was working with 100 percent of its installed capacity while export units are facing a problem of labor shortage for their third shift. He said that women must be encouraged to fill this gap in addition to earning a respectable job for their families.
Commenting on the social problems, he said that women who were working in prevalent circumstances were actually waging economic “Jihad”.
“These women are actually leader in attracting millions of other females who are waiting for an unbiased and gender discrimination free social situation in Pakistan. He appreciated the job portal launched by the SMW and said that urban as well as women living in peripheral areas must get the benefit of this latest digital facility.
Earlier Lubna Bait of SMW said that currently more than 15 million females are sitting idle in their houses and efforts must be expedited to involve them in the national mainstream. She said that a major part of women start a job but leave it immediately after their marriage. In later phases they have to face multiple challenges when they try to restart their job. She said that her organization has introduced an innovative program “Mother Back to Work” which will help them in getting jobs in close vicinity of their residence and in accordance with their family needs. “Such women will get stipend for two months and later on it will be the discretion of the employers to regularize them” she added.
