Women empowerment and Electronic Media - Media role for women's empowerment in Southern Punjab

1. Introduction

1.3. Women empowerment and Electronic Media

Women are vital members of the society and they can play a significant role for the development process of any country. Women’s contribution for the development can play a crucial role if they are sufficiently empowered. Empowerment of women is very essential because it gives them self confidence and they would be able to recognize their identities. It is important for the progress of nations that men and women should be treated on equal basis then women could contribute their part for the development because in this way they shall work side-by-side with men (Dubey, 2009). Women are struggling for their rights since early twentieth century but in recent times their struggle for the equality has now become an international issue.

Their long struggle for equal rights and opportunities had been denied in the past but now at the international level it has been recognized that empowerment of women is very essential for the social development as well as economic development of a country (Narasaiah, 2004). Media is considered as a powerful tool in all over the world. It is used for the different purposes because in present era people are more dependent on electronic media.It has also been used for

propaganda in different countries. Only electronic media is a source for the uneducated people to know the local and international issues. Media has lot of positive advantages along with its disadvantages. Media is a powerful source which can highlight the women’s issue and it can also recognize them about their rights. Through media we can mould the perception of the people according to our wish. Media may be used for the empowerment and rights of women but one thing which is most important that media should be independent but within limits. In Pakistan PEMRA (Pakistan electronic media regulatory authority) department is centrally controlling the media and they make rules and regulation for media industry. The main task of this department is to analyze which type of program should be broadcasted on TV channels. It is also necessary for Government to control the media because some time TV channels use sensationalism and vulgarity in their programs just to increase their viewership. On the other hand, in North Pakistan electronic media has also been used against the Government by Taliban. North Pakistan is consisting on tribal areas and Taliban has much influenced in those areas. They send their messages to Government and people through radio. For example, in 2012 Taliban has delivered a message in tribal areas through radio that women are not allowed to go in market without veil (Pakistan Media). Media should be controlled by the Government to prevent such kind of activities.

Media has the power to change the thinking, attitude and behavior of the people (Sweet man, 2000). Media has a capacity to highlights the core issue which are related to women’s right like gender discrimination, lack of education, sexual harassment, women’s health issues. When media broadcasts such kind of news then government gives some concentration to solve their problems and also on international level people shall realize its importance.

8 1.4. Objectives of the Study

In this study the core aim would be to focus on the issues of women empowerment and gender discrimination in different fields of life and I will also try to explore the media role for the empowerment of women. Electronic media is developing day by day and almost every person has access for it. It would be tried to explore how electronic media can motivate the women to gain their right and how media might educate the women for their rights? The main objectives of my study are as follows:

1) To analyze the perceptions of different people about women empowerment and socio-cultural and religious impact on women empowerment

2) To analyze the role of media for women empowerment and contribution of TV channels to highlight the women issues

9 2. Literature Review

This chapter will analyze some past studies which have been done on media role for women empowerment. It is very important issue but there has been very little research on this topic. Women empowerment has become the important issue in Pakistani society and rapidly growth in media industry can drive this issue in a right direction. Media could elevate the women knowingness of their rights and TV channels could be utilized as an instrument of social transformation. On Pakistan TV channels most of the women issues are highlighted through soap operas (Carilli & Campbell, 2012). Through literature review researcher gets more knowledge and proper guideline about his research topic. In literature review researcher consults the research work of different researchers on same field (Woodside, Megehee & ogle, 2009).

2.1. Women Empowerment

Empowerment is a procedure of transforming the power of choice to an individual or a community (Panigrahy & Bhuyan, 2006). Women empowerment is very essential for the development of the country and it could not be denied that women have capacity to change the destiny of a country. Women are offering their services in two fields, on domestic and economic front. It needs recognition that for the socio-economic development women participation is mandatory and they have ability to mould the nation’s fortune (Panigrahy &Bhuyan, 2006).

According to the Moghadam (2007), “For women, empowerment is a process, not an event, that challenges traditional power equations and relations”. Empowerment of women needs valuable material and potential at individual level such as proper health, education and good earning sources (employment). Women empowerment becomes more difficult by interfering factors of gender discrimination, poverty among women, violence, poor health and lack of education

(Moghadam, 2007). Pakistan is a country where socio-cultural values are dominant on society.

Men have more influence and control over the society and it is very essential to check their behavior trend. Women are the major part of the population of Pakistan but there contribution is very less for the development of country. Women should have same rights as men but due to socio-cultural aspects it seems very difficult. Women have very less opportunities in economic sector in Pakistan because most of the women are unpaid workers because they are engaged with agricultural sector. Agricultural sector of Pakistan did not have proper criteria of income for women. Women’s economic participation is not satisfactory in Pakistan. More political participation of women can provide them more opportunities to empower themselves. In Pakistan, political opportunities and jobs availability were very few for women but from last one decade Government is paying more intention to provide more and better opportunities for women to improve their condition in every field. Women empowerment was analyzed through these indicators, socio-economic participation, health and educational facilities and Political participation of women (Naz et al, 2010) Pakistan is an agricultural country and half of the labor force is working in agriculture because mostly population is living in rural areas of Pakistan. In Pakistan 36% women were engaged with agriculture in 1988 and mostly were unpaid worker and 48% women were engaged with family labor. Women access to economic, political resources is very limited and gender discrimination can be analyzed through salary wages of men and women (Naz et al, 2010).

2.2. Gender Discrimination in Pakistan

Gender discrimination is consisting in Pakistani society on high level. In Pakistan, 35 million people are living in the rural areas and they are engaged with agriculture and labor work.

Poverty ration in rural areas is high than urban areas of Pakistan and this unfair distribution of wealth and resources have great impact on gender equality. In Pakistan 47% population is living under the poverty line and a major part 35% population is living in the rural areas. Most of the women are financially dependent on men because Pakistani traditional society did not allow the women for jobs. In rural areas the main reason of gender gap is unequal distribution of resources and wealth. Women’s restricted approach to the resources like education and health, limited access of power and social and cultural barriers are the factor of gender inequality in a society because society pays less for women than men in Pakistan (Alam, 2010).

Gender discrimination exists in almost all the developing countries and there is a huge difference of women’s condition in developed and under developing countries. Much empirical evidence can be found that development process is much faster in those countries those are providing equal rights and opportunities for men and women (GII, UNDP). In Pakistan gender inequality exists in every sphere of life because gender discrimination is deeply rooted in Pakistani society since its independence. Gender discrimination in Pakistan can be observed in education, jobs, family, politics and socio-economic sector. Gender discrimination in educational sector resulted low economic growth. In a family, parents use all the possible financial resources for the education of boys but girls educations depend on the accessibility of extra financial resources.

Gender discrimination in education resulted Low literacy rate among women. Low literacy rate is also one reason of women’s poverty because without good education women could not gain better status and high level jobs and they could not contribute for the development and economic growth (Chudhary &Rahman, 2009).

A comparative study of gender discrimination was done in labor market of Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi is one of the big cities of Pakistan and there men’s income was 65.41 percent higher than women’s income. The main reason of this huge difference in income was gender discrimination in labor market. The researcher concluded that feudal society and gender discrimination in labor market was the main reasons of women poverty and low status in the society (Ashraf (2001) in Hussain, 2011)

In Pakistan formally women have equal rights as men in society because women can own property, women can participate in politics and they have right for vote. The reality is something else because women are considered as the second class citizen in Pakistani society. Most of the families prefer the male baby because male are dominant in society. On a family level women’s task is only to manage the house and women are expected to obey their husbands. According to the Human rights watch, in Pakistan violence against women was 90% in 1999 and that was alarming situation for Pakistan. Women are conceived as the symbol of family’s respect and men are the stewards of women and most of the women are killed on the name of honor because man thinks that women have been compromised the honor of his family (Singh, 2004).

2.3. Media Role for the Empowerment of Women

The empowerment of women in Pakistan has become the significant issue on international level and media is contributing a major part in this issue. Pakistani electronic media is flourishing very rapidly because electronic media is much independent in Pakistan. Media is playing a key role for the awareness of society and especially among the women to realize them about their rights and empowerment. Many female anchors are hosting different TV shows and such kind of programs is the best platform to highlight and discuss the women issues. Different

debate programs and drama serials are playing the best role for the empowerment of women (Carilli & Campbell, 2012). Media is presenting the women issues in different ways and media images of women have great impact on women. Some media’s performance is not satisfactory because most of the time they create thrill and sensationalism in their programs just to increase their profit and viewership without considering that what are the impacts of these things on society? Media is a powerful way to promote the social and cultural values and it could be used for the promotion of women at grass root levels. Media industry is in the hands of male so; all the policies are made by men even women’s participation in media industry is also increasing but their contribution in policy making is very limited (Gupta and Dyal, 1996)

3. Research Methodology

In a research project, methodology means to use different techniques for the collection of information and to find out the acceptable answers of research questions. Methodology is also defined as “a theory and analysis of how research should proceed” (Harding, 1987). In this research project, different research methods have been used to get the satisfactory results. In this research project qualitative method was mainly used for the collection of data. The research is composed on primary and secondary data.

3.1. Study Area

Multan district is situated in the Punjab province. It is located in the southern Punjab on the east bank of the Chenab River, Multan city is considered as a center of Pakistan and its distance from other big cities is 562 km from capital city Islamabad, 356 km from Lahore which is capital city of Punjab province and 966 km from Karachi which is the biggest city of Pakistan.

Total area of Multan district is 3,721 square kilometers and it’s approximately population is 3.1million. Multan district consists of following Tehsils-Sub Divisions- (Tahsil: consists on rural and urban areas)

1) Multan Cantonment 2) Multan Sadar 3) Shujabad 4) Jalalpur Pirwala

These four Tehseels have different urban areas, small towns and villages. Multan District has become the big city of the Punjab province due to its population and vast area. Multan city is also divided into different towns which are

15 1) Shah Ruken-e-Alam Town

2) Shershah Town 3) Mumtazabad Town 4) Shujabad Town 5) Jalapur Pirwala Town 6) Bosan Town

Multan is known as the city of saints due to lots of shrines in the city and it is also known as the ancient city of subcontinent. Basically Multan district is an agriculture part of Pakistan.

Politically this part has very importance because current Prime minister also belongs to Multan (Punjab Government).

The graph is showing the geogrphical condition of Multan district on Pakistan map Figure 2. Adapted from, http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/country_information.php?Pays=PAK

Multan is famous for its crops: wheat, cotton and sugar cane as well as mangoes and all these products are very famous due to its high quality. The main languages of this area are Punjabi and Sariki.

Most of the population is living in the rural areas and they are engaged with agriculture.

This area has been neglected from the past governments and mostly in rural areas people did not have basic facilities like clean water, health center and schools. Literacy rate in men is 53.3%

and in women is 32.3%. In Multan district 51%population is living in rural areas and 49%

population is living in urban areas. Most of the people in urban areas are landlord and they own agriculture land so their survival also depends on agriculture (PHSRP, Punjab Government).

Population of Multan district is divided into three social classes including upper class, middle class and poor or labor class. A major part of population is living in rural areas and most of the villages have Wadera system (owner of big agricultural land and head of the village). This class is also considered as a part of upper social class (CSS forum Pakistan).

In Multan district, Multan city was selected as the research area. Multan city consists of six towns and every town has rural and urban areas. Most of the people in urban areas area engaged with big or small business and jobs. In rural areas people are engaged with agriculture or small business like small shops, Government employee and labor work.

3.2. Information Collection

Information was accumulated from primary and secondary data. Primary data was gathered through survey and interviews from different men and women in the study area.

Secondary data was collected from different NGOs, Governmental organization, private organizations and available official documents and literature. For the collection of primary data most of the information was collected by the people through interview and verbal

communication. During the collection of information researcher should follow the rules and tell the truth to the respondents that he wants to collect some information (Vaus, 2002).

3.3. Research tools and Instruments

For the collection of data lot of research methods can be used but it is very important to select the accurate and proper methods for the research project. It is very essential to see which tools will apply for the data collection. In present research following methods were used for the data collection.

3.4. Key Informant Interviews

Key informant interview means, interview with a person who has a vast knowledge about the issues due to his or her skills or experiences or cultural background (Mckernan, 1996). The main purpose was to choose the key informants for the collection of authentic and solid information about the topic in a short and limited time period. These people were very helpful to provide the proper information which was difficult task to collect without their help. People from media organizations, NGOs, head of the village (Wadera) and religious persons were selected as key informants during the research.

3.5. Household Interviews

Household interviews are best and useful source for the collection of information.

Collective Interviews from all the members of household provide the proper information about the required questions (Green and Thorogood, 2004). For the collection of required information

35 household interviews were conducted. The questions were formulated before the interviews because most of the female respondents were uneducated and verbal communication was the most effective tool for the information collection. During the interviews the main focus was to know the respondent’s perception about women empowerment and their views about media contribution for women empowerment.

3.6. Informal Discussion\ Participant observation

Informal discussion with different groups of men and women was most useful way to get the information for the research project. During the informal discussions with different community members, NGOs persons, media persons and religious persons lot of useful information was collected. During the informal discussion people feels more relax and provide the proper information. The participant observation is another way for collection the collection of information. This method is considered as a best way for the data collection in the social science studies. The researcher becomes the part of the society and discusses different issues with people and try to make close contact with the people. This is the best way for researcher to get more, proper and vast information.

3.7. Sample Selection

For this research project total 200 interviews were conducted for the data collection and150 interviews were conducted to the female respondents and 50 interviews were conducted to the male respondents to know about the male point of view about women empowerment. To find out the media’s contribution for women empowerment these most popular five channel’s

programs were analyzed for three weeks. Geo news & Geo entertainment, ARY channel, Express news, Duniya TV and PTV (Pakistan Television).

3.8. Why I used these methods

In this research project main respondents were females and in the study area most of the population is living in the villages and they cannot read or write and verbal communication was the more effective way for data collection. During the interviews researcher has direct interaction

In document Media role for women's empowerment in Southern Punjab (Multan City) Pakistan (sider 14-0)