Tag: Rural Women

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For Balochistan, birth is more important than mother’s life

By: Sehrish Wasif

ISLAMABAD: For the Balochistan government, population growth seems more important than the life of a mother and child. The provincial government’s new population plan reveals startling facts about mother and child health. Instead of taking measures to curb population growth, the government is discouraging initiatives that make pregnancy, childbirth and childrearing safer.

The plan would actively discourage couples from availing contraceptive and family planning services, while no efforts are being made to improve existing healthcare facilities for the living.

National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) Director Dr Nasser Mohiuddin told The Express Tribune that the provincial government was not willing to link family planning with the Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Programme.

He said that the provincial government wanted to boost the fertility rate in Balochistan so that they can increase the population.

The bigger problem

“Balochistan presently has the worst indicators on maternal and infant mortality in the country,” Mohiuddin said.

Sharing data, he said that it was estimated that 700 to 900 mothers per of 100,000 lose their lives during pregnancy in Balochistan, compared to 272 in the rest of the country.

Simply put, a pregnant woman is three times more likely to die in Balochistan than the rest of the country.

Similarly, “Neonatal mortality in the province is 72 per 1,000 live births, compared to 54 in the rest of country, which is also worrisome,” the director said.

Meanwhile, for the past six years, the unmet need for FP services has remain stagnant in Balochistan at 31 per cent, whereas in the rest of the county has seen a five per cent drop from 25 per cent to 20 per cent, he said.

Use of modern contraceptive methods in the province stands at 16 per cent, whereas at the national average is 26 per cent, Mohiuddin said.

“Lack of political will, low budget allocations and poor healthcare infrastructure are the major reasons behind high maternal and infant mortality rates in the province. They need to be addressed on an emergency basis,” he said.

A gynaecologist deputed at a public hospital in Quetta, who wished not to be named, said that the provincial government believed that discouraging FP services would lead to a population increase, which while technically possible, was “not the best option”.

“We need to strengthen healthcare services in every district and develop infrastructure in the province to save dying mothers and newborns, rather than encouraging the mothers to have even more babies,” she said.

Given the state of healthcare in Balochistan, the more a woman gives birth, the more she puts her life at stake, the gynaecologist said.

“Women from remote areas of the province die while being transported to urban healthcare facilities across broken roads in tractor trolleys or on bull carts,” she said.

Talking about FP services, she said most rural women were not aware of the service or any reliable contraceptive methods.

The gynaecologist said that many also died due to complications caused by the use of traditional birth control methods.

She said that compared to the other provinces, Balochistan lacked providing FP service centres and the existing facilities did not have trained staff to counsel couples.

The doctor also expressed grave concern over the absence of accurate data on maternal and infant health issues.

“Major public hospitals in Quetta lack online patient registration systems in the gynaecology and obstetrics departments, due to which they do not have accurate figures on births or deaths due to complications,” she said.

The registration of patients is done manually and registers containing this information are often misplaced, leaving hospital staff unable to provide accurate data, the gynaecologist said.

‘Do bachay’ are not ‘sab se achay’

A provincial government health official justified the new plan, saying the government is focusing on increasing the population of the province, but with proper planning.

“We want couples to have three to four children, but follow proper birth spacing,” Balochistan Health Director General Dr Farooq Azam Jan said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Jan said that the province lacks trained lady health visitors (LHVs) to provide counseling to couples.

He said there was a need to create awareness among couples to avoid having children every year as it will put the life of both, mother and child at risk.

Sharing data, he said there are only 831 LHVs, 800 community midwives and 6,500 lady health workers (LHWs) for a population of 9.3 million, which is “insufficient”.

Moreover, a majority of women give birth at home, as only 16 per cent women in the province give birth at hospitals, compared to the national average of 48 per cent, he said.

“Strong political will, proper planning and increases in budget allocations for the health sector can help Balochistan address its startling health indicators,” he said.

Express Tribune

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Rural women still deprived of right to education

By: Sehrish Wasif / Maryam Usman

ISLAMABAD: Ignorance is certainly not bliss in the case of some rural women who dwell in the outskirts of the capital. Their harsh realities are rooted in the irony that they lack both education and resources to improve their lives and those they support.
Women living in Islamabad’s vicinity might be deprived of basic necessities. They might not even be sure of where their lives are headed but they are certain of one thing — they want to enable their children, especially their daughters, to brighten their future by educating them.

Among many others, whose efforts the United Nation lauds on its designated day of rural women today, is Ruqqaiya Bibi, a resident of Choti Arhnao village near Alipur Farash Town.
The 35-year-old, who single-handedly controls the affairs of the house, braces to fetch water from a nearby spring twice or thrice everyday despite severe weather or her poor health.
“Since the male members go out to work, it is the prime responsibility of all women members to fetch drinking water,” she confesses.

Despite her upbringing, Ruqqaiya does not discriminate between her two sons and daughter.
“Just like my sons, I want my daughter to acquire proper education so that she does not have to put through what women in my generation do,” she added.

Literacy rate in rural areas of Pakistan is 49 per cent with female literacy rate at only 37 per cent as opposed to male literacy rate at 63 per cent, according to Annual Status of Education Report 2011.
Hailing from a conservative family Irshad Bibi, an elderly woman from the same village, was deprived of her right to education by the men in her family. “They do include women in the village affairs and have the final say in everything,” she explained.

Despite her aspirations, Irshad could not do things differently for her daughters. “My husband was keen on marrying off our daughters early, even though they wanted to study,” she said.

Though the ratio of female population in rural areas of the country is 50.2 per cent, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011, women still have to strive in order to get an education.

“The girls in our family have to cover a considerable distance to go to school since there are no schools in our vicinity,” said Amna Ayesha, 22, a resident of Thanda Pani Village.

Rising at dawn, Ayesha stars her day feeding cattle and preparing breakfast for her family. “Along with all the chores, we have to earn a livelihood for our families. It is obviously not the best of circumstances and it is definitely not the fate we want for our future generations — we want them to be enlightened and empowered,” she said.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Rabia Hadi from Aurat Foundation, stated that “At present the government lacks a programme to empower rural women of the country.”

She said after the devolution of the ministry of women under the 18th Amendment there is no body or department at the federal level working for the rights or empowerment of women.

“There is a dire need to have a national machinery to look after all the affairs related to women empowerment country. The international community has also suggested Pakistan formulate this but so far there has been no progress in this regard,” she said.

Express Tribune
http://tribune.com.pk/story/775403/a-life-wasted-rural-women-still-deprived-of-right-to-education/

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With the right bait, struggling Kamber woman opens fish farm

By: Sarfaraz Memon

SUKKUR: There is a woman in Kamber who laughs at this saying: Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll never go hungry. She would say that sometimes you need to give a man fish for a few days before he can develop the strength to learn how to fish.

In Qaima Khatoon’s case, the fish was a road and there were 13 mouths to feed. She lives in Mohammad Bux Totani village, about 25 kilometers from Kamber, where she lived a miserable life as she could barely make ends meet. Her husband took no interest in earning or domestic matters and she was left to toil in the fields to try to feed the family of five sons and six daughters.

But then, a non-profit organisation came to ease matters and give women like her a much-needed boost to lift them out of grinding poverty from which there seemed no escape. The Takhleeq Foundation and Shell Tameer started work in the area to improve infrastructure and aid employment. Under this program, 105 women living under the poverty line were selected as road maintenance team workers and assigned to clusters of five. They were from different villages, explained Takhleeq Foundation Kamber District Coordinator Abdullah Magsi.

The women were assigned to repair and maintain roads to the village, for which they were paid a monthly salary of Rs4,500. Qaima got a job as a road maintenance team worker.

The programme lasted two years and Takhleeq Foundation made the women deposit a portion of their monthly wage into accounts under their name at the Tameer Bank to force them to save. According to Magsi, the Canadian International Development Agency was a major donor, while Shell Tameer was providing the women technical assistance.

The work was not easy as every woman has to repair and maintain six meters of the road daily. But Qaima and her team workers were used to doing hard work. To return to the saying, they were not being taught how to fish. They were being given a fish daily but this gave them a much-needed break. The money they earned helped them pay for their day-to-day expenses and allowed them to set some aside as well. After two years, Qaima had saved enough to start her own business. She chose to start a fish farm and invest in some livestock.

“I spent Rs60,000 setting up the fish farm and buying 2,000 small fish from the hatchery,” explains Qaima. “After six months of hard work, my fish have gained weight from 500 grams to 750 grams.” She now hopes that after three months she will be able to sell her first lot at a good price.

This was an unusual choice as fish farms are difficult to set up and manage and have traditionally been seen as the domain of men. “You know, establishing a fish farm in the village and looking after it is very difficult,” says Qaima. “The people living near my house use to release their sewage into the water and throw garbage into it as well.” This would lead to arguments and Qaima knew she couldn’t fight with her neighbours each day. It took considerable skills to learn how to manage her business in a sometime hostile environment.

Thus Takhleeq Foundation and Shell Foundation gave Qaima a headstart and offered continuing support. Team members came regularly to give Qaima advice on how to expand and manage her business. On a recent visit, the Shell Tameer folks told her she needed to give the fish proper feed to help increase their weight. While Qaima can’t necessarily afford the bag of fish feed which is priced at Rs6,000, Shell Tameer helped her develop a plan or vision. She plans to reinvest what she earns from her first sale into improving the next stock. “Once I sell my first lot, I will strictly adhere to their advice,” she said.

Qaima is grateful for the help, financial and technical, from the Takhleeq Foundation and Shell Tameer. “If they hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t even have thought about establishing a fish farm,” she said. “At first my neighbours used to doubt how it would be possible for a woman to set up a fish farm and manage it properly, but now they have realized the truth: women can perform miracles.”

The non-profit organisations had done something simple. They had tapped into a strength but had given the women that little extra support to get them started. “There is a lot of potential in the rural women and besides doing routine work, they can very well perform untraditional work,” explained Takhleeq Foundation field officer Zeenat Baloch. Qaima agrees: “Rural women are very hard working and strong and they have already proved their mettle by working in the agricultural fields under the scorching heat and in the biting cold. In addition to this, they manage their households and take care of the children and livestock.”

The way she sees it, these two non-profit organisations believed in the women and now it was their turn to prove themselves. She advised other women to take some time out of their routine work and try their luck in business to become self-sufficient. This financial autonomy had worked wonders for their confidence as well as standing in the community. For example, Qaima had earned newfound respect from other villagers and they are optimistic that, one day she could become a “waderi”. For now though, she’s pretty happy being the ‘CEO’ of her own company.

Join us in creating opportunities for the youth of Pakistan by contributing generously to any of the following accounts. Your contributions will be matched by Shell Tameer.

For SOS Technical Training Institute Enterprise Development Fund: Account No. 01-1334859-02 Shell Livewire Trust – Sos Technical Training Institute. Standard Chartered Bank.

For The Hunar Foundation Enterprise Development Fund: Account No. 01-1334859-01 SHELL LIVEWIRE TRUST – The Hunar Foundation Technical Institutes.
Standard Chartered Bank.

Visit our website, www.shell.com/pk for information about our partners and how you can support them.

*Contributions will be matched only during Ramazan 2014 to a maximum of 100 trades per organization

Express Tribune

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The travelling journal will voice women’s perspectives

women’s part in politics

By: Hassan Naqvi

LAHORE: The travelling journal on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), titled Our Stories, One Journey: Empowering Rural Women in Asia Pacific, will arrive in Pakistan on June 11, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The journal will be sent by post to 13 countries in Asia-Pacific – Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka and three countries in Africa – Benin, Mali and Senegal. Its aim is to highlight women’s leadership in strengthening movements, influencing policies and enabling systemic change.

The journal started its journey on February 6 from the Philippines. It will reach Pakistan after travelling through Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Nepal and India. In Pakistan, the partner organisation is Shirkat Gah.

The journal intends to represent rural women’s perspective on poverty, food sovereignty and sexual and reproductive health.

The project’s objectives are to share the perspectives of rural women from various regions. It intends to draw lessons from their experiences, resilience, innovativeness and strategies in addressing poverty, hunger and gender inequality. It aims to raise awareness and inform policymakers and the public about women’s reproductive health. Dr Tabinda Sarosh, senior manager of SRHR at Shirkat Gah, told The Express Tribune that rural women in Pakistan frequently lacked safe water, food and shelter. She said the recent drought crisis in Thar was an example of a government’s failure to anticipate the disaster, plan for its prevention or respond effectively.

Sarosh said rural women who actively participated in agriculture, industries, and domestic chores were unable to access their share of financial compensation, social opportunities and legal protection. She said that despite their contributions to household income, women often did not have a say in major decisions including contraception and reproductive health care.

“Pakistan’s fertility rate is higher than Bangladesh’s, and its maternal mortality ratio is the highest in South Asia. Hidden behind these figures are vulnerable women, who are not faceless or voiceless. They have a story that needs to be heard when high level meetings take place at national, regional and international platforms, where decisions are taken that impact the life and health of an ordinary woman, “ Sarosh said.

She said the issue of women’s rights and health often took a backseat. In the wake of the post-2015 development agenda, strong advocacy for these issues was needed to produce concrete strategies that address the gaps in policies. “The idea of a travelling journal was born out of the attempt to give voice to ordinary rural women, who are doing an extraordinary amount of work to improve their lives and those of others around them. The journal will record stories of women from various countries who are battling against the odds to make a difference to the lives of women around them,” said Sarosh

Express Tribune

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‘Rural women still dependent on unskilled birth attendants’

KARACHI: There is a major portion of rural Pakistan where women are still dependent on unskilled birth attendants.

Only 16 percent of the poorest women give birth assisted by a skilled attendant, consequently bringing the highest maternal mortality rate in Pakistan (276 maternal deaths per 100,000 births) with an estimated 20,000 women losing their lives every year due to pregnancy and childbirth- related issues.

While in Sindh, the maternal mortality rate shows an alarming situation being more than the average national figure of 314.

It is important to improve access to free medical services for women and promotion of healthy birth spacing to secure their lives. In this regard, recently a project has been launched in 10 districts of Sindh for ensuring access to family planning and reproductive health services.

HANDS Pakistan, in collaboration with Marie Stopes Society, is implementing the project in which women will get free services for pre- and post-natal care and safe delivery through skilled birth attendants along with free family planning services in 10 districts of the province.

Lady health workers and MARVI workers will provide vouchers to community women, i.e. women of reproductive age 14-48 years. These vouchers enable free treatment at local basic health units and private clinics. Further, district level clinics will also be technically equipped to provide better health care facilities to deal with any complications and avoid deaths during childbirth.

In order to overcome social barriers for effective implementation, HANDS is also working on a Behavior Change Communication Strategy involving mobilisation and a campaign through the dissemination of key messages on family planning and reproductive health. These messages are aired on cable TV and Radio FM. Simultaneous awareness sessions and one- to-one meetings help in reinforcing the messages.

HANDS district offices oversee the entire implementation of the provision of trainings, capacity building, technical support (antenatal/postnatal, child delivery and family planning services) and renovation of health facility. The development of the BCC strategy has contributed to optimising safe methods in reproductive health services.

Daily Times

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