To what end does the Balochistan government plan to meet its aim of increasing the population?
ISLAMABAD: The nonsensical approach of the Balochistan government towards population management and planning has taken a U-turn for the worse. According to a recent report in The Express Tribune, followed by an editorial, the Balochistan government seems quite eager to increase the population of the province. More so, an official of Balochistan reaffirms that the provincial authorities wanted couples to have three to four children with proper birth spacing, while acknowledging the lack of trained healthcare providers and services. What absurdity!
One is absolutely stunned at this approach by the Balochistan government. Considering that health facilities in the province are almost non-existent, such a measure will have disastrous consequences, not only for the resource-starved province, but also for the rest of the country. The official, at the same briefing, admitted that 84 per cent of births in the province take place in the absence of trained healthcare providers. To what end does the Balochistan government plan to meet its aim of increasing the population? Discouraging contraceptives in the wake of almost zero focus on providing necessary healthcare to the people is a death sentence for the province. The approach abandons the decades of efforts that were made after prioritising family planning, population control and efforts made on the front of improving sexual and reproductive health in the province. The provincial government needs to give some quick answers.
M Mudabbir Maajid
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2015.
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