KARACHI – Sunita Parmar, a Hindu woman in Pakistan’s Sindh province, hascreated history by becoming the first from the minority community tocontest the provincial assembly elections to be held on July 25.
Parmar, 31, who is from the Meghwar community will contest as anindependent candidate for the Sindh Assembly constituency PS-56 fromTharparkar district which has the highest number of Hindus in Pakistan.
Confident of challenging the status quo, Parmar said she was compelled tocontest the upcoming polls as previous governments failed to deliver ontheir promises of making life better for the people of her constituency.,according to a media report.
“Previous governments did nothing for the people of this area. Even in 21stcentury, we lack basic health facilities and proper educational institutesfor women, Parmer said.
“Gone are the days when women were supposed to be weaker and inferior. I amconfident of winning the election…This is 21st century and we are evenready to fight the lion,” Parmer was quoted as saying by the APP newsagency.
Sunita vowed to improve standards of education for women and poor healthfacilities in her constituency.
“I believe in girl’s education. This is the only way to make women strongerand prosper,” she said.
According to the 2017 census, the total population of Tharparkar districtis 1.6 million, out of which around half are Hindus.
In March, another Hindu woman, Krishna Kumari Kolhi, became the first-everHindu Dalit woman Senator in the Muslim-majority country after she wasnominated by the Pakistan Peoples Party for the elections to the reservewomen’s seat in the Senate.