Population growth rate drops to 1.8%

[Neo]

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Population growth rate drops to 1.8%

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan?s growth rate has dropped from 2.1 percent to 1.8 percent per year, according to a Population Ministry official.

We will achieve our target to bring the rate down to 1.3 percent by 2020, said the official on Wednesday. The credit goes to the media as it has adopted an active awareness programme about the implications of over-population to the socio-economic development of the country, he said.

He said that the ministry was asking people to create a balance between their resources and family size, and that many people were now using birth control measures, which was an indication of the effectiveness and success of the programme. He said that under the leadership of President General Pervez Musharraf, the country was heading towards heightened development and prosperity, and asked the people to support him in the upcoming elections.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\25\story_25-1-2007_pg11_6

 

[Neo]

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Condoms win over other family planning methods in slums

Daily Times Monitor

KARACHI: Forty-one percent of 404 women in squatter settlements use condoms followed by the IUD (16%), injectables (15%), the pill (12%), tubal ligation (12%) and other methods, including the hormonal implant, male sterilization and the diaphragm (4%), according to a study.

The research was published by FF Fikree, A Khan, MM Kadir, F Sajan, MH Rahbar as an article ‘What influences contraceptive use among young women in urban squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan?’ in the journal ‘International Family Planning Perspectives’ in September 2001, and while it may be a little old, the nature of the data indicates that some observations can still be helpful.

Despite being one of the first countries in South Asia to launch a national family planning program, Pakistan is exceptional in the region for its poor performance in improving contraceptive prevalence. After nearly three decades of government-sponsored family planning programs, contraceptive prevalence has increased from 5% in 1974-1975 to 24% in 1996-1997. Paradoxically, a significant proportion of women do not wish to have additional children.

For the study, interviews were conducted in squatter settlements in Karachi with Muslim women 30 years old or younger, their husbands and their mothers-in-law. Analyses indicate that women who reported using modern contraceptive methods were significantly more likely to be literate, to be exposed to an urban environment and to have had at least five live births. Women who were literate, who were of high economic status, whose mother-in-law reported discussing family planning with them and who had received family planning messages from healthcare workers were 2 to 3 times as likely to use contraceptives as were other women. In addition, women who said it was appropriate for family planning messages to be delivered through mass media were 50% more likely to use contraceptives.

Opposition to family planning by husbands and mothers-in-law contributes significantly to unmet need, even among women who are receptive to family size limitation. Moreover, women in South Asia are taught that their own interests are subordinate to those of the family group. Consequently, they are likely to sacrifice their own desire to regulate fertility. In the context of family planning, women’s discussions with their husbands are strongly associated with their attitudes toward contraceptive use. In addition, the presence of mothers-in-law in the household is influential in determining family size.

Women’s autonomy, defined by their decision-making abilities within their household and their mobility outside of their home, is strongly influenced by kinship and marriage relationship, by age, by religion and by division of labor within traditional patriarchal societies. Pakistani women’s ability to leave their home has an important bearing on their awareness of the world around them and could influence their adoption of contraceptive methods. Purdah dictates that the sexes be physically segregated outside the household and that women wear a veil in public. As a result, most Pakistani women lack the freedom or autonomy to move about in public and, more often than not, need a chaperone to go anywhere in public, including to a health facility.

Pakistan officially condoned family planning and launched its national family planning program in the early 1960s. However, one of the several reasons stated for the dismal performance of the population program is that because of religious beliefs, the common Pakistani man does not view family planning favorably. According to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 1990-1991, 13% of women and 18% of men report “religion” as their reason for not using contraceptives.

During the first half of 1996, we conducted a study in eight urban squatter settlements of Karachi. From 1984 to 1996, the Aga Khan University operated primary health care programs in six of the settlements.

To be eligible to participate in the study, women had to be married, Muslim and 30 years old or younger, had to have at least two living children and had to live with a Muslim spouse and mother-in-law.

Nearly one-quarter of the women in the sample were younger than 25, and 68% reported at least four live births. More than half were literate, but only 9% reported earning an income. Their spouses were generally older than they were - 4% were younger than 25 and 73% were 30 years or older; 78% were literate, and all but 3% were employed. Though 86% of mothers-in-law were illiterate, the proportion who reported working to earn an income (12%) was slightly greater than for the daughters-in-law.

Consistency in reports of spousal communication about family size varied considerably among the 717 couples - while 81% of wives reported such communication, only 34% of husbands did. Reports of communication about family size between women and their mothers-in-law and between husbands and their mothers also varied. While 57% of women said they had discussed the topic with their mother-in law, only 38% of mothers-in law said they had discussed the topic with their daughter-in-law. Furthermore, 19% of mothers said they had discussed the topic with their son, but only 7% of sons said they had discussed the topic with their mother.

Reports of spousal communication about family planning were quite consistent - 94% of wives and 85% of husbands reported such communication. However, 84% of women reported communication about family size with their husbands, while only 40% of husbands did so.

Smaller proportions of mothers-in-law than daughters-in-law reported communication with one another about family size and family planning. While 62% of women using a method reported having discussed family size with their mother-in-law, 41% of mothers-in-law reported such discussions with their daughter-in-law. Regarding discussions about family planning, 52% of women said they had talked with their mother-in-law, while only 35% of mothers-in-law said they had discussed the topic with their daughter-in-law.

Even smaller proportions of sons and mothers reported discussing these topics with one another, and their responses also were inconsistent. While 22% and 10% of mothers reported speaking with their sons about family size and family planning, respectively, 8% and 4% of sons, respectively, reported having discussed these topics with their mothers.

In the squatter settlements, where it is relatively easy to access modern family planning methods, we learned that after controlling for women’s education, accepting family planning messages delivered through mass media, having a mother-in-law who discusses family planning with them and receiving family planning messages from a health care provider strongly influenced women’s likelihood of using contraceptives. However, women’s level of autonomy - based on their ability to make decisions within the family and to go out of the home unaccompanied - did not significantly influence their contraceptive use.

One exception is our observation that there is not a significant association between contraceptive use and women’s discussions with their husbands about family matters, including family size and family planning, which have been found to be important for predicting fertility change. The only household communication that remained significant in the analysis was that of the mother-in-law’s reported discussions about family planning with her daughter-in-law. Thus, in the traditional Pakistani patriarchal and patrilocal family structure found in the low-income squatter settlements of Karachi, a woman’s mother-in-law appears to have a strong influence on the couple’s reproductive decision-making.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\25\story_25-1-2007_pg12_11