KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to give status of essential services to the Family Planning & Reproductive health by giving it legal cover.

This he said on Thursday while presiding over a 3rd meeting of Sindh Taskforce on Population here at CM House. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Nasir Shah, Shahla Raza, CM Advisor Aijaz shah Shirazi, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary health, Focal Person PWD Dr Talib Lashari, PPHI CEO Abdul Wahab Soomro, President SZABIST Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Country Director Population Council Dr Zeba Sathar, VC Malir University Dr Mehtab S Karim, Representative of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Dr Yasmeen Qazi, Country Representative of UNFPA Lina Musa and others.

Shah said that Family Planning & Reproductive Health is the most important sector and it must have the status of essential services so that they could continue their services unhindered even on odd days. Therefore, he directed Minister Health & Population Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho to prepare a legal framework for the purpose.

He also directed Minister Health to write a letter to the federal government to convene a Federal Taskforce on Population meeting to take initiatives as per CCI decisions. He added that the Sindh government would activate the lady health workers programme to implement family planning & reproductive health as was initiated by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto during her second tenure.

The CM directed the population department to start family planning in slum areas of the major cities so that growth rate could be controlled. "We are giving priority to education so that sustainable behavioural change could be ensured in terms of population control," he said and urged the Population Welfare department to achieve the target of reducing population growth rate from 2.4 percent to 2 percent during the next 10 year. Briefing the chief minister, Health & Population Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said that all vertical programmes, including LHWs, MNCH, and Immunisation have been integrated into health system by transferring them to the regular budget and placing them under Director General and District Health Officers. She also added that we have contracted with partners to provide telehealth services to women and girls in communities.

The minister said that family planning services have been 50 percent affected due to Covid-19 related lockdowns. She said that as per guidelines, all Reproductive Health Services (RHS) and Family Welfare Centres (FWC) located in Health facilities have been directed to remain open and provide services with safety measures. Beside it, the Community workers like LHWs have been made in touch with their clients through WhatsApp groups.

Dr Talib Lashari Technical Advisor CIP/PWD and Focal Person FP2020 said that Sindh has achieved 634,928 additional users out of 986,260 unmet need goals set for Dec 2020 till May 2020.

Legislation: The Sindh government has already introduced Reproductive Health Rights (RHR) Act. The rules of RHR Act have been finalised and sent to the Law Department for vetting. Once the rules are approved the act would be implemented.

The Draft Marital Counselling Bill is being vetted by the Law Department. After its vetting it would be placed before the provincial cabinet for approval. Sindh Commitments: In the wake of Pakistan's commitments made at Nairobi Summit regarding SDGs, an exercise has been conducted to set provincial CPR goals. We have agreed with the Federal Ministry of Health and UNFPA that the goal for Sindh would be 43 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

Covid-19 situation report: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement issued here from CM House said that 10574 samples were tested against which 1155 new cases emerged that constituted 11 percent detection rate. He added that so far 615,302 tests have been conducted which detected 110,068 cases all over Sindh that came to 18 percent overall detection ratio.

Shah said that 34 more patients died lifting the death toll to 1922 that constituted 1.7 percent death rate. He added that currently 34070 patients were under treatment, of them 33094 in home isolation, 53 at Isolation centres and 923 at different hospitals. The condition of 738 patients is stated to be critical, of them 105 have been shifted to ventilators, he said.

According to Shah 3775 more patients recovered and returned to normal life. The number of patients recovered so far has reached to 74076 that constitutes 67 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020