Call to improve female hygiene, reproductive health

More than 60 male and female students attended an awareness session on female hygiene and reproductive health Thursday at the KIOCA Seminar Hall of PMAS Arid Agriculture University.

Organised by the Programme on Development Alternatives (PODA) in collaboration with the District Population Office, the event formed part of the youth-led "Her Health, Her Rights" campaign.

Nabeela Aslam of PODA outlined the organisation's work promoting the rights of women, youth, persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups — especially rural women.

She previewed PODA's 18th Annual Rural Women Leadership Training Conference and described activities under the three-year "Reduce Early Marriages to Enhance Gender Equality" project, funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad, which delivers sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) awareness from schools to district-level government departments.

Aslam related the case of an eighth-grade girl facing kidney failure after an early marriage and warned of widespread menstrual-hygiene risks — improper pad use, avoidance of bathing and drinking water during periods — that can trigger infections and urinary tract complications.