RAWALPINDI: The participants of a workshop on sexual and reproductive health rights identified anaemia as a major challenge affecting women of all ages and emphasised the need for immediate steps to ensure adequate folic acid intake.

The workshop was organised by PODA in collaboration with the office of the District Population Welfare for the staff and lady health workers attached with the Basic Health Unit of Kotha Kalan, Rawalpindi.

Among the 25 women participants, around 50pc were found to have hemoglobin levels below the World Health Organisation’s recommended level. Incharge family health clinic at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Dr Asima Tariq, stressed the importance of nutrition, awareness and preventive measures to address anemia.

The participants recommended declaring an iron deficiency emergency to ensure effective dissemination at the grassroots level, noting that women were now more willing to respond to such campaigns due to increased awareness of the consequences.

Nabeela Aslam, Project Manager, emphasised the need to address urinary tract infections by focusing on crucial issues of cleanliness and hygiene during periods. She stressed the importance of removing stigmas associated with menstrual health and advised maintaining hygiene, including taking frequent showers and washing hands with soap.

Among the group of 25 women, three were survivors of child marriage. They shared the ordeals they had gone through, including deprivation of basic rights, particularly the right to education, mental abuse and the hostile attitude of in-laws. The workshop was part of the project “Reduce early marriages to enhance gender equality” which Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA) is implementing with the support of the Norwegian embassy in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025