Government run family planning services and incidence of RTIs in Pakistan: a case study

Durre Nayab, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)

Government of Pakistan designed a very ambitious package in 2000 that emphasised the shift in focus after the ICPD from fertility control towards a more comprehensive approach, integrating reproductive health with family planning, and recognised the need to place human beings, rather than human numbers, at the centre of all population policies and activities. This package however remains to be implemented in practice, as findings of this paper, dealing mainly with presence of RTIs, including STIs, also shows. Women accessing government owned family welfare services for contraception, antenatal care or post-natal care had higher incidence rates of RTIs. Lack of pre-screening for infections and of contraceptive choices offered, accompanied by lack of imparting proper knowledge to users and poor hygiene are among the main sources of these infections at these centres. Integration, improvement and reorientation of reproductive health services in the real sense is the need of the hour.