It is good and quite appreciable to note that some 3500 women have been trained free in both rural and urban areas in five districts of Punjab through the Women on Wheels initiative of Strategic Reforms Unit of the provincial government. The initiative has quite obviously been taken to ensure gender equality, reclaiming of public places and to provide freedom of mobility to 49 per cent of women in the province. 

According to the reports in the newspapers, this was stated by Director General Strategic Reforms Unit Salman Sufi while talking to the participants o the City Dialogue on “Why women on wheels” by the Urban Unit in Lahore the other day. It was introduced in 2015 with the objective to train 40 thousand more women in coming months, the second phase is all set to introduce a subsidized bike scheme exclusively for women in the province. 

He said that the Strategic Reforms Unit has introduced some 30 such reforms since progressive depend on women’s development and initiatives to groom women while making them excel individually as well, women are the force of progressive Pakistan and it is time we start recognizing the fact that they own the country as much men do, it is also imperative for Pakistan as a society to portray its peace loving image instead of negative propaganda by certain quarters. 

This is indeed a positive initiative in the right direction as the women so trained will be making some productive contributions to their families as well as to the society on the whole. Strategic Reforms Unit, which directly works under direct supervision of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, deserve appreciation for taking such a bold initiative for women’s socio-economic uplift particularly in the males dominated chauvinism society. 

EM ZEE RIFAT,  

Lahore, March 11.