Says all stakeholders must sit together to overcome problem
Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid said here on Friday that burge-oning population was inarguably the biggest problem of the country and all stakeholders must sit immediately to-gether to overcome this problem.
Speaking as chief guest at an aware-ness seminar on Family Planning at a local hotel here on Friday, the Health Minister said that special trainings of Lady Health Workers shall be the key to raising awareness on family plan-ning. The partners other than the health department were Population Welfare Department, P&D and World Bank. Present on the occasion were Special Secretary Development Dr. Farrukh Naveed, DG Health Services Dr. Ha-roon Jahangir, Dr. Akhtar Rashid, Dr. Athar, Prof. Javed Chaudhry and oth-ers. Dr. Zeba Sattar, Dr. Yasmin Qazi, Dr. Tabanda Sarosh, Dr. Fauzia Asad joined via video link.
The purpose of the conference was to review and analyze policy gaps in the family planning sector. World Bank Practice Manager Gail Richard-son, Senior Health Specialist Mano Bithari and other officers. The discus-sion surrounded on various indicators for successful completion of all family planning projects in Pakistan.
During the conference, the efforts of the Health Department for family planning in Punjab were appreciated. The Health Minister said, “We appre-ciate the support of the World Bank in family planning efforts. Our primary goal is to provide quality family plan-ning services.
The use of contraceptives across Punjab can make the family planning initiatives a success. We are making all out effort to balance the demand and supply of contraceptives. Special training is being provided to lady health workers.
The training and awareness of LHWs will lead to im-proved results. Controlling the rapidly growing population is one of the big-gest challenges of our time.
It is impor-tant for all stakeholders to sit together for population control. Birth spacing is very important for both mother and child. Lack of birth spacing can result in iron deficiency in both mother and child. Anaemia is one of the leading causes of death in Pakistan after child-birth.
There must be a gap of at least three years between two babies. Allah Almighty has commanded that the child must be breastfed for the first two years.
