ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday expressed concern about non-availability of data of differently abled persons in the country but expressed the hope that the government would prepare it by the middle of next year.

“As there is no authentic data of differently abled persons in the country, it would be made available by June 2021 through a survey by the Ehsaas Programme,” the president said while addressing a virtual dissemination seminar on population analysis at the Presidency.

Regarding the government’s efforts to control increasing population of the country, he vowed to get Ulema involved for people’s counseling.

He said Pakistan had adopted a multi-pronged approach to check population growth and address other issues like mother-child health, malnutrition and stunting growth.

Says the government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to check population growth

“The multi-pronged strategy includes women empowerment through financial inclusion besides creating awareness about the importance of gap in birth through various means of communication and taking on board various segments of society, including Ulema,” he added.

Speaking about the government‘s commitment to address the issue of population growth, Dr Alvi said Prime Minister Imran Khan soon after coming into power took up the issue of malnutrition and stunting growth and subsequently various measures were taken to address the problem.

He said as compared to the previous government’s tenure of 2013-18 when this issue was not taken care of, the present government was making a lot of efforts to address the issues of population growth, malnutrition, stunting growth and mother-child health.

“As frequent pregnancies lead to stunting growth of child besides affecting the health of mother there is a need to create awareness among masses about the importance of gap in birth and the use of contraceptives,” President Alvi said and referred to Quranic teachings which called for two-year breast-feeding of children.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020