PESHAWAR, June 30: Keeping in view the devolution of departments to provinces, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has announced many incentives for female education and health sector, which will motivate public and contribute to women empowerment.

Dr Waqar Hussain, an expert on economic planning, said this while speaking at a seminar on `devolution of departments under the 18th Constitutional Amendment and its impact on the provincial budget`, here on Thursday.

About women empowerment, he said that of the total 23.38 million population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 11.437 million was of females and poverty was the highest (34.4 %) in this province. The Aurat Foundation organised the seminar.

He said that women`s participation in labour was only 16.92 per cent, which indicated little empowerment of women. However, he said that the government had announced several incentives to improve the situation.

Taking a look at the provincial budget for fiscal 2011-2012, Dr Hussain said that the government had announced stipends for girl students besides claiming a five per cent increase in their enrollement. The stipend for LHWs has been increased from Rs3,100 to Rs7,000. Besides, Rs39 million has been allocated for giving stipends to unemployed postgraduates, he said.

Dr Hussain, however, said that most of the women would be left out of the government`s Pakhtunkhwa Hunarmand Khudrozgaar scheme to provide loans for business, as there was no female vocational institute in the province.

In this context, he said that the government should focus on quality of female education and it should set up comparatively lesser schools, but with hostel, transport and other teaching facilities so that females could get quality education even in the far-flung areas.

The expert observed that issues would continue to come up following the devolution, but the government would gain control and remove these hurdles with the passage of time. He stressed that the government should focus on energy sector as with its improvement other sectors would also grow.

Shabina Ayaz, Aurat Foundation resident director, said that under the Legislative Watch programme the organisation was trying to empower women through attainment of equality in legal status. She said that after devolution there was a need for legislation and amending laws discriminatory to women.