Moot urges family planning, protection

Healthcare professionals and experts from the health department emphasised the importance of adopting integrated methods – including better family planning and usage of contraceptives – as the country deals with a population explosion, high maternal and infant mortality rates, and a poor health infrastructure.

“We are helping the government of Pakistan to deal with the problem of a growing population and will continue to do so,” said DKT Pakistan Country Director George Papachristou while speaking at a seminar held to mark World Population Day. It was organised in collaboration with DKT Pakistan and the Express Media Group and discussed reproductive health and women empowerment among other issues.

“We supply 150 million contraceptives in Pakistan every year. We are going to build 200 more clinics in different parts of the country,” said the country director while talking about the network of more than 1,250 clinics being run the nonprofit organisation.

Dr Humaira Naeem of Shifa Hospital, while speaking on the subject of post-abortion complications, said that 2.2 million abortions take place in the country every year. It results in infection in many cases as the abortion is administered by untrained providers.

These women should be treated by a specialist physician, she said while urging more awareness regarding family planning. Dr Saeeda Batwal, who works at the PIMS Hospital, said that the maternal mortality rate was around 10 per cent which was very high. She said there should be awareness regarding what to do in case of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies.

Dr Saima Zubair said that the biggest problem facing the country was population. Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population. According to average estimates, our population was expected to be 240 million in 2025. But it has already breached this limit, two years ahead of time,” she said.

Dhanak clinics

DKT is one of the world's largest supplier of family planning products and services, said Afak Shaikh of DKT Pakistan. He said it has offices in 36 countries and its products are available in more than 90 countries.

DKT runs its Dhanak clinics in underdeveloped areas, he said adding that they provide people with family planning products at low cost to make them accessible to people from underprivileged areas.

The organisation runs centers in 88 districts of Pakistan, Shaikh said. This includes teams in 34 districts in Punjab, 15 districts in KP, 18 districts in Balochistan, five districts in Gilgit-Baltistan and 16 districts in Sindh. They have over 200 clinics that are running under two donors. They envision building 200 more clinics with the help of another donor. Last year, said Shaikh, DKT Pakistan conducted 1,323 training camps for lady health visitors and hospital staff. Shaikh said that his organisation was also providing equipment for family planning, and claimed that DKT Pakistan had more coverage than any other NGO in Pakistan. “We are running more than 100 clinics in remote areas of Balochistan where it is very difficult to work,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2023.