Evidence-based policymaking key to sustainable development

Annual town hall participants lament plight of overburdened lady health workers

PESHAWAR: Lawmakers of the province were on Wednesday called upon to make stringent laws for population welfare and sustainable development, even as the challenges to instilling family planning values and diminishing returns of lady health workers were discussed.

This was suggested during the first-ever annual town hall on population and sustainable resources. The town hall was organised by the Population Council and the Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA).

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan stated that soon a new bill on introducing pre-marital counselling to bring new, healthy family values will be introduced in the assembly.

Furthermore, he pointed out that a child marriage law is currently in the works and after vetting, He hoped that once it is passed, it will usher in a new era where injustice against girls will be ended.

The deputy speaker added that he is doing his utmost to educate his constituency about family planning and reproductive health.

Samia Ali in her remarks stated that the population of the province has increased seven times since independence. She added that the Population Council will be holding a series of debates across the nation to foster public and key stakeholder sentiment.

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) lawmaker Humaira Khatoon said that the slogan of having “only two children” over the past two decades seems to have negatively impacted the religious-minded residents of the province.

Instead, she suggested that a slogan on giving a gap between having children will be better as it does not carry any negative overtones.

Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) official Dr.Rehana Rahim stated that tertiary care hospitals are best suited for providing family planning counselling. However, she criticised the incumbent government’s mantra of making doctors accountable, stating that it made the environment quite inhospitable and discouraging to carry out family planning service.

Lady Health Workers (LHW) Programme in charge Khurrum Shehzad pointed to the challenges faced by his charges.

Shehzad stated that LHWs have been engaged on multiple fronts including deployment in the anti-polio, dengue and even leishmania campaigns.

“Lady health workers are no longer effective in family planning,” Shehzad said, adding that owing to their limited numbers, they are only able to cover 60 per cent of women even in urban areas such as Peshawar.

Scholar Roohullah Madni suggested that population welfare should be left to personal choices of individuals, suggesting that the state should not overtly influence them. Instead, Madni suggested that education and sensitization campaigns must be carried out through the media and legislation.

Dr.Jamil Chitrali stated that a new law should be proposed to ensure that compulsory pre-marital counselling is carried out by NADRA before issuance of identity cards and marriage documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2019.