KARACHI, June 12: Speakers at a workshop, held here on Sunday, said that if the government organizations and NGOs worked together, they could succeed in containing the population growth by nearly two per cent — the target being chased.
They were expressing their views at the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) Workshop organized by the United Nations Population Fund to formulate strategies for the effective implementation of the Seventh Country Programme (SCP).
The US$35 million SCP, a five-year programme, is to be launched in 2004 and would cover 10 districts — two each in the four provinces and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The two districts selected in Sindh are Jacobabad and Thatta.
Quoting 1998 census, the speakers said that the country’s population was about 146 million which made it the sixth most populous state in the world. The annual population growth was around 2.16 per cent, they noted and warned that if immediate measures were not taken to bring the growth down to a reasonable rate, the population would touch the mark of 217 million by the year 2023.
They said that despite a level of awareness of family planning of over 95 per cent and an estimated 33 per cent of unmet demand for family planning, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) was only around 27.6 per cent in 2001-2002. The CPR was one of the lowest in the countries of this region — Iran, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, etc.
They said that the ratio of maternal mortality was around 300 deaths per 100,000 live births, which appeared to be one of the highest in the world. Only 18 per cent of deliveries were attended by trained or skilled health care providers. The infant mortality rate was estimated at 82 per 1,000 live births.
The speakers observed that the sixth five-year programme was hit by some problems. However, they added, such problems had been resolved to pave the way to ensure smooth implementation of the next programme.
Sindh Minister for Population Welfare Imtiaz Shaikh, speaking on the occasion, said that the government was making efforts to ensure regular supplies of the contraceptives to reduce the unmet demand of the people who, though, were aware of the issue, could not get the required stuff. He said that steps would be taken to impart training on the staff so that they could provide better assistance.
The minister pointed out that efforts were also being made to include health, hygiene, gender and other issues in curriculum so that students could be sensitized from the early age and have adequate knowledge at their adolescence.
He said that a coordination committee, headed by chief secretary, had also been formed to coordinate among various departments, dealing in population development, gender, youth and other related issues, and monitor their working.
The UNFPA representative, Olivier Brasseur, said that political will was necessary for achieving any goal and it was a good sign that the political leadership here was aware of the issues. This, he remarked, had made him believe that the population growth would be brought down to a desirable level soon.
He suggested motivating local women representatives and social and religious leaders in this regard and said: “Once it is done, the work of the reproductive health service providers will be become comparatively easier.”
Provincial Secretary Population Welfare Mushtaq Memon, Dr Nasreen Khan, Dr Sulaiman Shah and Dr Ghulam M. Channa were among those spoke at the workshop.