Karachi: Sindh Minister for Women Development, Special Education and Social Welfare Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani on Monday said that the betterment of healthcare of mothers and children was the priority of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) provincial government as no nation or country could advance in the world by ignoring the vital healthcare sector.
She expressed these views while addressing the second public awareness seminar on “Women and Children Healthcare”, organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) at a local hotel.
Dr Sher Shah Syed, Prof Iqbal Memon, Dr Rufina Soomro, Dr Qaiser Waheed and Dr Sahib Jan Bader also spoke.Qaimkhani said for betterment of women’s health in the province a phase-wise training of 6,000 midwives was underway in order to cater to the healthcare needs of women of remote areas. She said the culture of early marriages not only affected the health of girls but also deprived them from getting proper education. She said the law about child marriages would be enforced soon in the province.
She informed that minimum age of 18 years is mandatory for both bride and bridegroom and violators would be sentenced one year imprisonment and Rs0.2 million as penalty.
She stressed the need of importance of continuity of democracy in the country to resolve the problem of the common man. She said the media was an important tool to highlight the issues and problems of the society. She urged the media to spread awareness for the promotion of health and education in the society.
Dr Soomro said breast cancer was the most common disease in Pakistani women. She stressed for early diagnose and proper management to save women from the breast cancer complications. She said the risk of breast cancer in women increased after 40 years of age.
She said the use of alcohol and genetic issues were amongst the major factors behind the spread of breast cancer in women. She said actually the late diagnose of this disease was the main reason of death of women from breast cancer.
Dr Sher Shah Syed said the spread of diseases in the society was linked with the unawareness. He emphasised the need to get educated children especially the girls. He said, “Ignoring the healthcare sector in primetime of TV channels is the real tragedy of our society”. He said skilled midwives and staff nurses were needed to reduce the mortality rate of women and children in Sindh province.
Dr Sahib Jan Bader said in Pakistan each year at least 25,000 women and in other words approximately one woman died every minute due to complications of pregnancy and about 30,000 infants (including 160,000 neonates) died in their first year of life.
