03 Women Welfare in Pakistan: Analysis of MDG 3&5 Through Locally Constructed Indices

Abstract

The threats to instruments and strategies of women empowerment in Pakistan are vivid as far as episodes of the past two decades are concerned. How far these potential threats proved detrimental to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been an un-answered question of the period. The main objective of this study was to evaluate women welfare in terms of Pakistan’s achievement in MDG3&5 and also in comparison with its neighboring countries (i.e. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka).Being a literature-based study multiple sources of secondary data were accessed through their websites. The analysis leads us to the fact that women welfare in Pakistan is residual in nature. To double-check the results of the analysis made through locally constructed indices, the findings were triangulated by the In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) of 30 welfare personnel of the country as well as by the UN indices (GDI and GEM).