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KARACHI, July 11: The Sindh population welfare department has not held a mega-event on the World Population Day (WPD) out of consideration for those affected by the recent rains and floods in the province.
In a statement issued on the day, Syed Ali Bux Shah, the Sindh Minister for Population Welfare, said that the province had been badly hit by rains, and considering the situation, where crops were destroyed, villages were inundated and affected people were fighting for survival, the department had decided to divert the funds allocated for the celebration to arrange free medical camps.
According to the minister, the overall growth rate in the country was 1.86 per cent, and efforts were being made to reduce it to 1.6 per cent by 2008.
Role of men
Speaking on the theme of the WPD – ‘male responsibility as a father, husband, politician, community and religious leader’ -- the minister said that men could play a vital role in bringing down the rate of women’s deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth.
He said that his department was working hard in providing reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, skilled attendance and care at birth and awareness among the people for smaller families.
At present, 578 family welfare centres are working in the rural areas, in addition to 60 rural health service centres and 70 mobile service units.
Talking to Dawn, the Secretary of the Population Welfare Department, Alamdin Bullo, said that the department had postponed the major events, but programmes on a smaller scale such as walks and medical camps were held on Wednesday across the province, with the idea to enhance the awareness of the masses on population control measures and the improvement of reproductive health.
Influx of migrants
In response to a question, the secretary said that the birth rate in Sindh was 1.8 per cent. He said the rate could be improved further but the problem was that the growth rate in the province had become difficult to maintain due to the economic migration of citizens from all over the country into Sindh.
He said that his department would soon be arranging a seminar for religious leaders as they had a great role to play in educating and motivating people on family planning agenda.
