KARACHI:Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the current total fertility rate (TFR) of the country is 3.6 and his government was committed to bringing down to 2.8 in 2025 and 2.2 in 2030.
This he said on Friday while presiding over the 2ndmeeting of Sind Population Taskforce here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Minister Health and Population Dr Azra Pechuho, Minister Labour Saeed Ghani, Minister Women Development Shehla Raza, Advisor Social Welfare Aijaz Shah Shirazi, Chairperson PandD, provincial secretaries of Health and Population, School Education, Information, Women Development, Social Welfare, CEO PPHI, Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Ms. Bayramgul; Garabayeva, Head of UNFPA, Karachi, Representative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and representative of USAID.
The meeting discussed various issues at length and expressed satisfaction that Sindh had been leading provinces in terms of interventions and pursuance of Family Planning-2020 Targets which are now going to be linked with Sustainable Development Goals Target 2030.
The chair was apprised that survey and study had shown that people were not adopting Family Planning due to weak counseling and misconceptions regarding contraceptives. Functional integration has been paying results. The public and private sectors are on the same platform for achievement of family planning targets.
With reference to compliance of CCI recommendations, Dr. Talib Lashari, Technical Advisor, CIP said that most of the recommendations were complied with by the Sindh Province. The Sindh was the only province that introduced SAYANA Press in Pakistan.
The Chief Minister Sindh said that despite resource constraints, his government was fully committed to support the cause of Family Planning. He said that the growth rate of population was high. He further said that the federal government should convene Federal Taskforce meeting under the Prime Minister in compliance of the orders of Supreme Court, so that the support of Federal Government for seeking finances could be ascertained.
The chief minister decided to extend CIP upto 2025.
The chief minister was told that 885 male mobilisers have been trained and regularized to engage them for counseling of male members. The 282 private hospitals have been declared as RHC-B with the facility of providing free of cost contraceptive. In Karachi, such 26 facilities have been registered.
The chief minister has already directed Sindh Healthcare Commission to directed 1000 private hospitals/clinics to set up mandatory family planning desk. The meeting decided to review implementation status of the decisions taken so far in the next meeting.