Family planning services for marginalised women

LAHORE : Punjab Minister for Population Welfare Hashim Dogar has said the Population Welfare Department lays great emphasis on providing quality family planning services through its service delivery network and it is striving to make reproductive health and family planning services available to every household in Punjab province.

He especially mentioned the support by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Khan and the allocation of maximum financial resources to realise the dream of the population planning in letter and spirit in the province. He was speaking at the launch ceremony of the innovative model for improving access to family planning services for marginalised women. The pilot intervention is an innovative model to extend access to family planning services to the BISP beneficiaries and is being jointly implemented by BISP, the Population Council and Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) in Rahimyar Khan district.

Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) Chairman Dr Ijaz Nabi said that the Punjab government had established PPIF as a technical hub to pilot innovative, scalable and sustainable family planning interventions such as the one Rahimyar Khan district.

PPIF with independent board of directors and organisational structure specialises in designing and piloting interventions that can supplement public sector programming for improving family planning information and services.

PPIF Chief Executive Officer Jawad Ahmed Qureshi said the pilot model would facilitate low-income married women of reproductive age in Rahimyar Khan district through a voucher scheme to avail themselves free family planning services. Transportation cost will also be reimbursed to them, thereby eliminating the financial barriers for poor women. He hoped that the successful implementation of the pilot project would pave the way for scaling up the model throughout Punjab.