‘There’s nothing dirty about reproductive health education’

Participants call on parents, schools to help youngsters understand physical development.

ISLAMABAD:

Questions of whether or not and to what extent parents and children should discuss physical and biological changes that occur with age remain taboo in Pakistan, but some people want to remove the embarrassment attached with them.

Participants at a policy dialogue discussed the controversy surrounding the popularisation of reproductive health education, agreeing that the topic invokes taboos pertaining to cultural and social values, rather than religious ones. The debate ‘What young people want, what young people need’ was organised by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with Rutgers World Population Fund at a local hotel on Saturday. Accepting at the outset that reproductive health education addresses sexual rights and creates awareness about sexual health, the discussants stressed the need to differentiate between obscenity and reproductive health education, observing that religious teachings about reproductive health should be borne in mind. In a press release, they called for legislation, implementation of existing laws and right to information about sexual and reproductive health.

They urged civil society to facilitate proliferation of reproductive health education among the youth, asserting that “we need to eliminate all barriers to spread reproductive health education”. They also said that some elements are spreading misinformation and vague propaganda against comprehensive sex education, so the civil society and non-governmental organizations should amplify their efforts to address these lags, they added. Qazi Zahoor ul Haq, renowned educationist and chief guest, emphasised the need to minimize parent-children gap so that problems can be shared amicably. “Cultural and social taboos should be removed so that they don’t pose hurdles in disseminating and getting sex education.”

Earlier, consultant ITA Islamabad Nayyar S. Malik remarked that sex-related taboos in Pakistan had deprived a large number of people from awareness about sexuality or reproductive health. He highlighted the importance of learning sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), especially before marriage, clarifying that it is unrelated to obscenity or vulgarity, as most people perceive it.

Participants called for adding reproductive health education to teacher-training manuals. Meanwhile parents were requested to educate their children on the issue by facilitating comprehensive reproductive health education for them via toll free help lines and inclusion of the subject in school syllabi.

Youth-friendly facilities at all health centers should be provided so that they can freely share problems, seeing that education of men and women is equally important and concerns their general health.

Among others, National Trust for Population Welfare Program Director Shabahat Ali, Youth Parliament District Project Manager Hamad Malik, ITA Marketing Deputy Director Waqas Bajwa and ITA Coordinator Mona Sarwar participated in the debate.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2013