NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH WEEK (SHRH)

As National Public week is going to be celebrated therefore I myself wanted to contribute some thing . i am already working on SHRH through some organazation (Baithaik Challenging Taboo) which along with other components of SHRH is focusing on Family Planning especially in far flung Rural areas of Sindh with Balochistan. Pakistan is 5th most popoulous country in the world with a population growth rate at 2.4% according to some studies it varies and 3.6 children at an average family inspite of Pakistan Government,large scale funding & various Family Planning programes to raise the CPR by 50% up to 2025 but it is sagnant around 30 to 35% from which 24.3% is modern CPR. from(12 January 20230.aS WE KNOW THAT CPR IS AN INDICATOR OF HEALTH,POPULATION DEVELOPMENT and WOMENS EMPOWERMENT. The question is why we are so far behind to achieve the results .One factor on which I am focusing and observed in rural areas is UNMET needs which were to be reduced from 21% to 17% but theses are not properly addressed .Reasons are different from access to availability to commodities,Knowledge and awareness . What happens if some one is in dire need of using any contraceptive but due to many reasons it is not ,it leads to unintended pregnancy pscycological trauma or induced abortion by untrained people. The prevalance of induced abortion according to one study is high in Sindh (63% while 62% in balichistan and lowest in KPK 40%). According to UNFPA by reducing the UNMET needs the Maternal deaths can be reduced to 1/3rd.In an article published in Daily Dawn written by Mr Zafar Mirza on 14th August 2021 has raised the question that why Pakistan has low CPR and high abortion rates.In short he has summarised that couples dont have timely accessto actionable information about contraceptives.One reason from reliable data available from the Pakistan Logistics Management Information system is unavailability of commodities due to multiple reasons. During my recently started clinical practice (6 Months) where I had hardly 2 to 3 patients /day I returned 8 women who wanted contraception as these were not available in private then i contacted some District population Officer to whom I knew first he refused but after few days he arranged few Injections but unfortunately those were expired . During this short period 6 ladies came to me with requesting of inducing abortion but as I refused certainly they would have gone to some untrained personnel as two of them came to me with complaints of PID. What ever causes what we can do .WE can coordinate with different organizations though it is difficult as every organization is playing number game but we should try .If not with organization individually raise awareness wher ever we have opportunity. Women Education & Empowerment also plays a key role in increasing CPR as we observe that more educated women has less children and those who are either illitrate and unemployed & poor has more as this class considers their children as asset and in this way we are providing more poor and poor no education nation.