Punjab Population Welfare Minister Neelam Jabbar Chaudhry has said the Punjab Welfare Department and the UNFPA have launched a project in Chakwal and Muzaffargarh with an allocation of Rs 1.40 million. She said the government was using all resources to start welfare projects.
She said the government was focusing on increasing the accessibility of quality reproductive health services, including family planning, and to enhance understanding of adverse consequences of rapid growth. She told a delegation of community leaders and people that the government wanted to promote family planning as an entitlement and voluntary choice, adding that attaining balance between resources and population growth was necessary.
On efforts by the Population Welfare Department to promote population welfare, she said the number of males providing quality family planning services in union councils would be increased, in phased manner, up to 3,300 by the end of the plan period.
She said non-government organisations were also being encouraged and motivated to help in this cause since over-population was a national burden. Community leaders, especially religious scholars and the media, could greatly contribute in realising people to keep their families according to their resources, she added. She said messages of the department would be released in local languages so that people could be well aware of the department's aims and objectives.