KARACHI: New action plan on reproductive health soon
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 21: A new reproductive health action plan indicating areas of work and responsibilities of different stake-holders working in the field of population planning will be formulated soon.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, the Sindh Population Welfare Minister, Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh, also urged the NGOs and CBOs to come forward and join hands with the government to bring down the population growth rate.
He said that the annual growth rate which sometime back was over 3.5 per cent has been brought down to 2.06 per cent, and further efforts are on to achieve the target of 1.9 per cent by December 2004.
He said that growth rate in Sindh was at 2.2 per cent and the government would approach the international donors to increase the share of Sindh in their future programmes.
Mr Shaikh said that the Education department had agreed that the lessons relating to reproductive health would be included in the syllabus from the secondary school and hopefully the new textbooks being printed this year would be carrying these lessons.
Earlier, speaking at a meeting of NGO workers who had come from all over the province and departmental officials at the National Research Institute for Fertility Control (NRIFC), he said that the department, with the assistance of NGOs, would carry out capacity-building of the NGOs workers so that they could provide better services. He said that awards would be given to best performing NGOs.
Responding to one suggestion given by an NGO representative regarding translating the national population policy in Sindhi and Urdu, he said that it would be done.
To another question that the policy document was not available with even the NGOs working in the field, he said he even had not seen the policy document (booklet), though he knew the salient features of it, he added.
Earlier, different NGO representatives suggested that men, who are decision-makers in the family, be focused, as the number of men coming forward for family planning was negligible as compared to the women, though the operation for men was comparatively easier.
They suggested that an awareness campaign be launched to bring about a behavioural change.
They stressed that service delivery system be improved as with current around 15.3 per cent of the contraceptive prevalence rate, which is among the lowest in the region, it would be difficult to achieve the target of 1.9 per cent by the end of next year.
They suggested that besides the family planning services, other assistance like the free medical camps etc also be organized in the rural areas.
They demanded that a provincial population welfare council be formed, and federal government be approached so that the National Trust for Population Welfare (NATPOW), a federal organization, could be made fully operational soon.
Mushtaq Memon, Rehana Ahmad, Noor Illahi Arain, A. Rahim Moosavi, Aftab Abbasi, Abdul Jamal, Nasreen Khan, Ayub Khan, Zaman Wassan, Hameeda Shah, Mohsina Bilgrami, Mohammad Aslam, Tariq Qureshi and others also spoke.
Dr. Yasmeen Sabih, PAVHNA, referred to a survey conducted by her NGO mentioning that adolescent constituting more than 50 per cent of the total population is largely denied of any information facilities or even support programme, adds APP.
She said the population policy needs to take into due consideration the very age group and provision for necessary support with regard to their health care needs but also proper guidance to protect themselves against infections and diseases as HIV/AIDS.
