Raising the Economic Status of Pakistani Women

The women economic development in Pakistan has been quite ignored and over the years most of the programs/ interventions have been directed towards removing violence against women, women’s primary education and health care, women crisis centers and most recently a rigorous drive on political empowerment of women by giving them 20% representation in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Despite governmental commitment and donors efforts to reduce gender inequalities, nothing has been done with regards to developing proper women economic action plan to uplift women socio-economic status. On ad hoc basis, some common facility centers and vocational/technical training institutes to enhance female participation rate have been established which provide traditional skills. Also, to mobilize youth energy into economic sectors, government has launched internship programs and other incentive; yet its impact on the grass root level is not visible due to lack of information and knowledge to young females regarding these facilities. The result is that many girls become confined to their homes.

The question we have to answer for ourselves is whether we want to live with the existing situation or whether we want to bring a productive change in our society. Online earning is the most recent opportunity to bring this change. It provides a graceful solution to raise the economic as well as social status of Pakistani women. Also, foreign exchange earn through online earning can be integrated with the national economy. Above all, it will help us to transform the most suffocated population and wasted human resource of the country into a valuable asset.

Online earning is a new catch word. Success stories of multi-million dollar blogs and high profile brand partnerships on the Internet have created an impression that earning online is a monkey-eat banana business. If someone thinks so then he/she lives in a fools’ paradise. Earning online is as tedious as any other serious business and should be treated like so!  The diversity of options available to earn money online makes it a tedious task. No single solution can be offered as a silver bullet.  The truth is that different ways to make money online involve different sort of work and require different types of skills. The high-paying options require technical skills, which is why many people end up with lowest paying options and then conclude that it’s impossible to make money online for a decent living.

The entrepreneurial challenges of online earning require special skills, aptitude, passion, and commitment. New comers to this field need special training which prepares them to cope with these challenges.  Unfortunately, none of the Pakistani university or any other educational institutions offer such training.  Keeping in view the need of the time, following contents for an intensive training has been proposed. These contents can provide essential knowledge & skills required for online earning.

It would not be out of place to mention that the success of this training absolutely depends on resource persons. Conventional teachers who read books and deliver lectures will ruin the ethos of the training. Only resource persons who have practical experience of online earning can bring fruitful results.

Proposed Contents

1. Essential knowledge of the Internet & WWW for online earning
2. Introduction to Online Market & Niches: Bloging (hosted & owned);YouTube , Tweeter, Facebook, Google Adsense; Search Engine Optimization; Affiliate Market; Online Service Industry; e-tutoring; Article & Review Writing; Selling on eBay, OLX, and Fiverr; and New Trends and Opportunities.
3. Essential Skills for online earning:
   1. Multimedia Information Management
   2. Online Communication Management
   3. Technology Management
4. Essential Attitude, Aptitude, and Ethical Issues of Online Market
5. Online Earning Tools, Technologies, and Trends
6. Content Management System for Website Development (WordPress, Drupal, etc.)
7. Starting an e-Commerce Business:
   • Feasibility and Business Plan Development
   • Loaning & Funding
   • Effective planning for Product Launch
   • Multimedia Content and Publicity Material Development
   • Website Registration, Hosting and Website Development
   • Legal Issues (Contract Management, Taxation, Company Regt., Registration of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Copyrights)
   • Export Import Documentation and Financing Schemes
   • Online Payment & Fund Transfer Systems in Pakistan
   • Supply Chain management
   • Customer Relationship Management
   • Taxation & Financial Management
8. Mobile, eMail, Social Media, and Search Engines Marketing
9. Security & Scammers Issues
10. Google Application Development
11. Free Lancing: Working on Elance, 99Designs, oDesk, Freelancer, and other Free Lancing Websites.

 Educational Institutions can offer this training in the form of a 6 months Diploma under the title of “Diploma in e- Entrepreneurship”.

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