Women have been at the receiving end in Pakistan’s Sindh and before International Women’s Day’s celebrations on March 8, the hashtag ‘#SaveDaughtersOfSindh’ is trending in the country.

The hashtag is related to girls who are pursuing medical education and they are ably abetted by college admins and thoroughly ignored by the government, reported Business Recorder.

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The recent suicide by two female students of a medical university in Sindh province past points to severe flaws regarding women’s safety in several places including educational institutions and workplaces in Pakistan, underlining that the country has once again failed as a “safe nation” for women.

Andleeb Abbas, writing in Business Recorder said that Sindh as a land where the law of jungle prevails is a euphemism. There is no law. There is a state of the “wadera raj” (powerful rule) where the big guns fire, loot, decide who will be allowed to breathe or live.

Moreover, Sindh’s inhuman development– Sindh ranks abysmally on poverty, education and health services. Schools in Sindh are either on paper as was recently revealed in a report on 1,459 ghost schools or without proper teachers and facilities.

Sindh’s literacy rate instead of increasing fell from 63 per cent to 62 per cent. Health facilities are a ticking time bomb. There is a dog bite ‘epidemic’. Children are dying of malnutrition. 6,000 children have HIV/AIDS. As people become more impoverished, resistance becomes a luxury, reported Abbas.

He vouched to support, help and resonation for the brave action of Parveen Rind of Chandka Medical College. In the Chandka incident, student Parveen Rind revealed how her life was in danger. She also claimed that the other two girls who had supposedly committed suicide were also killed.

She had met the Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and showed to her the body wounds but no action was taken. She needs protection and her family as well. There needs to be constant vigilance and high-level security for them, added Abbas.

Women in colleges, workplaces, etc., are victimized and blackmailed. It is necessary to start an official local “MeToo” movement that keeps track of the growing insecurity and harassment in these circles, suggested Abbas.