Limiting families

Family planning services have been badly affected by the coronavirus lockdown in Sindh

In order to make the common people realise the importance of population control, the Sindh government has announced that family planning and reproductive health will soon be declared essential services. The process of providing legal cover to the issue is underway and would be completed shortly. The provincial government aims to reduce the population growth rate from the current 2.4% to 2% in the near future. In view of the fast growth of population among the poorer segments, the population welfare department would soon launch family planning initiatives in slum areas of major cities. Since education plays a crucial role in persuading people to limit families, the provincial government has prioritised education so that sustainable behavioural change is ensured in terms of population control.

Family planning services have been badly affected by the coronavirus lockdown in the province. So now the population welfare department has been asked to provide continued services to the people. The government has asked the health department to provide tele-health services to needy females. The Sindh government has also decided to fully revive the Lady Health Workers Programme, initiated by Benazir Bhutto during her second tenure as PM, to implement family planning and reproductive health initiatives. In line with Pakistan’s commitment on sustainable development goals agreed at the Nairobi Summit, the government had conducted an exercise to set contraceptive prevalence goal rates in the province. It had agreed with the federal ministry of health and the United Nations Population Welfare Fund to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate in Sindh to 43% by 2025 and to 50% by 2030. The Sindh government has also decided to ask the Centre to convene a meeting of the task force on population.

We hope that all these initiatives will produce the desired results because overpopulation gives rise to poverty, illiteracy and lots of social issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2020.

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