Interfaith Harmony and kartar Pur Sahib by Government of Pakistan

I am Sister Zeph founder and chairperson of the ZWEE foundation and Zeph Sunday Schools Ministry of Pakistan.  I have been working all my life to promote education, empower women, and bring interfaith harmony to our society.  I started my work at age of 13 and never looked back. Like many people in the world I have also noticed, despite all the efforts of the United Nations, European Union, Governments, NGOs, religious leaders(Some), and individuals religious tolerance is decreasing in the world.  A few days back I was passing by a street. It was around 8: AM in the morning. I was holding my one-year-old son with me. I saw two little girls going to school, there was fog in the street, the weather was cold, One of them was around 7 years old the younger one was 5 years old I guess.  They were going to school alone. the little sister was left behind because she was wearing her shoe which was not fit for her foot, she was trying to wear it when the elder sister saw behind she turned and slapped the little sister. She did not come to help her, She did not ask her why she was left behind, but used power and dragged her to move on. All of this happened in just two minutes but kept me upset for days.  84% of the population in the world claims to be religious. the size of major religious groups is as below in 2020. Christianity 31.11%, Islam 24.90%, Unaffiliated 15.58% Hinduism 15.16% Buddhism 6.62% Folk Religions 5.61% Other Religions 0.79% I do not know why the violence is increasing in the world, but in my humble opinion, I think I know one of the reasons why it is increasing in Pakistan.  Only 25% of women in Pakistan are in the workforce, which means 75% of women depend on men for their financial needs who live at home and look after the kids. while 81.86 of the men are in work in force. the unemployment rate is likely to reach 5.0 percent by the end of 2021. ''The World Bank (WB) has estimated that poverty in Pakistan has increased from 4.4 percent to 5.4 percent in 2020, as over two million people have fallen below the poverty line. Using the lower-middle-income poverty rate, the WB estimated that the poverty ratio in Pakistan stood at 39.3 percent in 2020-21 and is projected to remain at 39.2 percent in 2021-22 and might come down to 37.9 percent by 2022-23, reported The News International'' Business Standard.com The inflation rate in Pakistan under former Premier Nawaz Sharif in 2015 was 4.5%, which has almost doubled to 8.9% in 2021. DW.com  When men cannot fulfill the needs of their families they have stress obviously this stress increases instability, lack of confidence, trust, self-esteem, and hope.  It also gives birth to arguments that lead to violence at home and outside of homes. Children see their parents fighting all the time and fathers beating the mothers, using abusive language and stuff. They also see how using physical torture even if one person is wrong can force others to listen to him and act accordingly.  Children grow by experiencing this physical and mental violence themselves and they see no one rise up against it when a father beats the mother no one says it is wrong, infect people in the family say, this is the way to control a woman, others say it is their personal matter and do not stop the men from doing this, men think it is right to leave such an impression of beating on children in order to keep them in control.  But nobody understands what they are doing with their generations.  I have been visiting sacred places of big religions in Pakistan. I have visited Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Krishna Mandir in Lahore, Kartar Pur Sahib( Sikh's sacred place) in Narowal, and St. Anthony's Church in Lahore.  I did it because I wanted to introduce my children to all the big religions in the world. So they can understand the diversity and can learn to respect all the religions.  One thing that was most fascinating for me, there were people from four main religions visiting these places and when all of them meet each and other, they actually get excited, make photos together, greet and share their combined history and ties from past generations from Indo-Pak.  Common people want to live in peace, but on the other hand, common people are being misguided by some people who are against peace.  In my humble opinion if we want harmony in our society we must focus on our family system. We must work to end poverty, we must teach our students to accept diversity, we must teach our couples to respect each and other, we must show our children respect and peace through our actions. All Governments should take initiatives like the Government of Pakistan took by building a beautiful Kartarpur Sahib Temple for the Sikh Community. Just imagine how heart warning it is to see buses standing on one side from India and one side from Pakistan to visit the same place, with equal respect. No one could tell what was the religion of someone around us by looking at their appearance. We were all human beings, we were all equal there, We were all smiling, talking, appreciating this initiative together. If we want interfaith harmony we must build again sacred places like Karpur Sahib, to give respect to all religions. No matter if they belong to Minorities or the Majority. No matter what is diplomatic relations between Governments but common people should have permission to visit their holy places without a barrier, fear, or limitation. Because those who believe in religion get spiritual satisfaction by visiting the Holy sits, this satisfaction also makes them feel happy, calm, and Peaceful