The Women Development Department (WDD) of the Sindh government, Wednesday joined hands with ROZAN to launch a policy on Darul Amans to improve post-shelter lives of women survivors of violence in Karachi.

Economic empowerment is globally considered a key component in structural interventions to reduce gender inequality and instances of gender-based violence (GBV) among women and girls.

However, in Pakistan, low socioeconomic status is attributed to most women survivors of violence who seek refuge in Darul Amans leading to overwhelming barriers to their independent integration in the society. This leads to a high rate of return of women in Darul Amans to abusive partners and/or households, perpetuating, and in many instances worsening violence and abuse.

Keeping in front the need for improvement in the lives of women in shelters, the WDD has joined hands with Rozan to launch a policy on Darul Amans.

Rozan is a not-for-profit organization working since 2000 on Darul Amans and other women's shelters all over Pakistan.

Rozan conducted research in the year 2019 with women survivors in their post-shelter journey, and it was noticed that women were in a better position to live a life free of violence if they had enhanced capacity of earning or support available to them by shelter management.

However, the lack of any institutional support and mechanism from the state, once they leave shelters, was expressed by all of them. The development of a socio-economic integration policy for women survivors is a deliberative effort to strengthen their post-shelter lives, enabling them to live free of violence when they leave Darul Amans.

The Policy document is based on a year-long consultative and reflective process undertaken by the WDD and Rozan, between 2022 and 2023, to understand and better respond to shelter residents’ socio-economic needs, as a method of violence prevention and mitigation.

The policy lays down priority actions related to education and skills, economic activity, legal rights, healthcare, childcare and support, safety and security, safe housing, and social networks' expansion, which have been determined as key areas requiring concerted focus by all concerned stakeholders inputting into this policy.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary WDD Anjum Iqbal said that WDD has a shelter policy for the Sindh Darul Aman’s residents but they do not have any post-shelter reintegration policy for the women survivors of the violence.

“So, under the supervision in generous support of Syeda Shehla Raza, Minister for WDD Sindh, we have developed a post-shelter integration policy for the women survivors of violence, and we are happy that we are launching the policy today,” added Anjum.

During the presentation of the policy launch, Fouzia Yasmin, Deputy Director Programs Rozan elaborated that this policy is to strengthen the social and economic integration services and programs for women seeking shelter from gender-based violence, abuse, and exploitation in the province of Sindh.

“It lays down priority actions related to education and skills, economic activity, legal rights, healthcare, childcare and support, safety and security, safe housing, social networks' expansion, community support, and acceptance, which have been determined as key areas requiring concerted focus by all concerned stakeholders inputting into this policy.”

Syeda Shehla Raza, through her message to the event, said: “It is hoped that the implementation of this policy will assist women survivors of violence in the pursuit of social & economic justice and encourage to break the cycle of abuse. It is also hoped that this policy will ultimately contribute towards violence against women mitigation and prevention in Sindh. The WDD would like to thank all the concerned stakeholders for contributing their knowledge, ideas experiences, and expertise to this Policy, Government Department, shelter homes, officers of WDD, and other development partners.” 

The representatives of local and international organizations, which were also part of the policy launch pledged their support in making this policy launch a successful event.

Javeria Kamran and Wajiha Gilani of Legal Aid Society also shared their views on women empowerment.