KARACHI: Currently, more than half of the girls aged between five and 16 are out of school in Sindh, together with 39 per cent of boys. Sixty infants out of every 1,000 live births die in the province before reaching one year of age whereas 50 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted.

This data was shared at a consultative workshop on Voluntary National Survey and International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held on Thursday at a local hotel.

The event was organised by the Federal Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The consultation was aimed at assessing the progress made at the provincial level in the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

It brought key stakeholders from various sectors, including civil society organisations, academia, development partners and officials representing population welfare and health departments.

Federal govt-UNFPA organised workshop calls for increased use of contraceptives to check high mortality rate

The data shared during the meeting showed that with an average annual growth rate of 2.41 per cent in Sindh, the total current population of the province (56.3 million in 2022) is estimated to grow to 95.7 million by 2050.

An estimated 3,000 maternal deaths occur annually due to insufficient health coverage, which can be reduced by 33 per cent if contraceptive use rises from 31 per cent to 49 percent. Besides, this can save the lives of 1,000 mothers and 34,000 infants.

Participants of the consultative meeting discussed the challenges and ways forward to accelerate progress on key areas such as women and youth empowerment, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality, poverty eradication and employment.

It was emphasised that investment in family planning was key to improve indicators on women’s and children’s health and education and that accelerating progress towards addressing gender inequalities, sexual and reproductive health and family planning services was essential for population development.

High fertility, they said, contributed to infant mortality and malnutrition.

Expressing concern over the current state of Sindh’s population, UNFPA head of its Sindh office Bayramgul Garabayeva said that a rapidly growing population meant ever-increasing demands for food, schools, health facilities, jobs and infrastructure; and this would ultimately result in rising pressure on the government to keep pace of providing these services at an equally fast rate.

Qasim Soomro, Sindh parliamentary health secretary, reiterated the government’s commitment towards prioritising the ICPD Programme of Action, recognising it as a crucial framework for sustainable development and population management.

“The collaboration with UNFPA has been instrumental in supporting the provincial government’s efforts in this regard, providing technical assistance, expertise and resources to ensure effective implementation of the programme,” he said.

It was pointed out that the current domestic expenditure on family planning in Pakistan was insufficient to meet the population’s growing demands.

There was a need to increase funds’ allocation for family planning programmes and build a strong national capacity to implement them, they said.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2023