Women without Voice: Childbearing Women of Rural Areas

Abstract

Healthcare in Pakistan is identified as one of the most daunting tasks. Discrimination with women is a common practice in Pakistan which starts with their birth and continues all their life. Women from rural areas are more prone to this discrimination than their urban counterparts. All these things along with the fact that reproductive health and related issues in Pakistani society are hitched with socio-religious belief system, and therefore are not discussed openly, make this exploratory research all the more important. The heavy dependency of women on men, particularly of rural settings makes them more vulnerable. So, they confront with maltreatments, neglects and exploitations. The study aims at exploring the process, condition, socio-economic and religious causes, and impact of problems and vulnerability of childbearing women in a village called ‘Kot Pindi Das’ about 12km away from Lahore. The study analyses the primary data collected through unstructured interviews, participant observation, and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to document the phenomenon in detail, and results in suggesting preventive, regulating, and rehabilitating measures to address the problem.