By Moses Nyirenda
Lilongwe, Mana: The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) says it is on the move to address issues of inequalities affecting women, children and people with disabilities in various places including in the work places and academic institutions in the country.
Speaking on sidelines of the panel discussion program which was organized by MHRC at Crossroads Hotel on Wednesday in Lilongwe, MHRC Commissioner, Boniface Massah said that inequality remains a problem in the country.
“There is indeed a big problem of inequality in Malawi and the good examples being at the work place, education institutions and even in communities.
“For instance in some companies you would see that both men and women are doing the same job but you will notice that women are being paid less than men or you would see that women are given more task than men just because they are women and this is pathetic,” Massah said.
He added that, MHRC is currently monitoring the inequalities in different institutions and communities and is working together with various stakeholders to address the challenge of inequality in the country.
“As MHRC what we are recommending is to make sure that we provide right information to all Malawians regarding inequalities, we want Malawians to have information on the laws that are addressing the inequalities whether in gender and disability.
“We are currently monitoring the inequalities and we are engaging duty bearers and organizations to make sure that state obligations are implemented in terms of adequate measures and efforts to end the inequalities,” he said.
In her comment, Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre Director, Emma Kaliya said that there is also a need of corroborative efforts, if the issue of inequality has to be addressed in the country.
“all of us we have to work together to make sure that these inequalities should not continue, we are very aware that things are not well out there and if we leave it to one sector such as the public sector things will not work.
“In this case Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), government, development partners as well as the general population have the role to play if we are to deal with this issue of inequality in our country,” Kaliya said.