KARACHI, April 9: Speakers at a workshop, on Tuesday, said that correct reproductive health information should be provided to the adolescent population, so that they do not fall victim to quacks and avoid misery and suffering.

They were speaking at the inauguration of a four-day national training workshop on “Grooming Energetic Leaders in Adolescent Reproductive Health”, organized by the Pakistan Voluntary Health and Nutrition Association, supported by the UK-based Department for International Development and the USA-based Packard Foundation.

They said that school and college curriculums do not address reproductive health information and cultural settings inhibit any communication between children and parents on these issues, while civil society organizations working on the issue fear backlash from extremist groups. Therefore, in the absence of correct information, the youngsters remain confused.

Sindh Finance Minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, said that priorities of the past governments had been misplaced and providing basic social-sector facilities such as health and education always remained at the bottom of their priority lists.

Pointing out that a majority of the government officials were neither efficient nor committed, he urged the civil society organization and NGOs to come forward and join hands with the government, so that life for the poorest section of the community could be improved.

He said that though the government had meagre resources, a lot of donors with huge funds were looking for development schemes to improve the lives of the poor. The only requirement was that the NGOs should get organized and prove to these donors that they were efficient, honest and had a commitment for improving the lives of the poor. If the NGOs could do that, there was no shortage of funds.

He said that the government was giving due priority to health and education, and had doubled the non-salary budget of the education department, recruited a large number of teachers despite a ban on recruitments and had enhanced the health budget by 20 per cent.

He said that another major issue was the population explosion that could be effectively checked by providing correct reproductive health information to adolescents. He said that economic growth had also eroded due to the explosive population growth rate, and presently around 45pc of the people earned less than $1 a day.

He suggested that education and skills be provided to the youth, so that they can play an effective role in the economic upliftment of the country.

Earlier, Dr Yasmin Qazi of Pavhna, giving a brief resume of the organization, said that it had transformed according to the needs of the community, as initially it started as a nutrition project, then family planning was included and later on, it started to work on reproductive health that had emerged as an accepted global agenda after the Cairo Conference in 1994.

She said that Pakistan, with an estimated 29,786 adolescent population (10 to 19 years) constituting 21.86 per cent of total population, requires a comprehensive reproductive health policy for quality adulthood. If people of up to 25 years are added to it, this group comes to over 63pc.

She said that globally-speaking, adolescents suffered discrimination in terms of both resource allocation and decision- making about issues that concern them closely. She said that adolescents, in many situations, were unaware of their reproductive health rights, needs and healthy reproductive behaviour and practices.

She said that a significant number of young people, who have been forced to get involved due to circumstances in anti-social activities such as drug-trafficking and commercial sex trade, are among the vulnerable groups with a high risk of sexually- transmitted diseases, AIDS and mental disorders.

She said that Pavhna, in partnership with 25 NGOs and CBOs, was providing contraceptive services, including surgery, to over 2 million people.

She said that Pavhna had also set up youth centres where young people were provided coaching and training in English language, computers, beautician, physical fitness, peer education trainings, medical advises, etc, to develop their skills so that they can get involved in economic activities.

Shahab Khwaja, Dr Jabeen Abbas, Dr Abdul Qayoom and others also spoke.

Peer leaders of Pavhna Youth Centres also staged a play, Kanch and Khawhishat, highlighting the plight of adolescents and youth, mainly girls denied of education and compelled into early marriages.

Some 23 representatives of 19 NGOs from all over the country are participating in the four-day workshop, and besides lectures, they would also be taken to the Pavhna Youth Centres in Korangi.