Damaan Development Organization on Saturday organized a workshop on indigenous people’s right to reproductive and sexual health at the conference hall of Strengthening Democracy through Parliamentary Development (SDPD). The objective of the workshop was to share the findings of a survey on reproductive and sexual health with the survey respondents and civil society activists and seek their recommendations.
The survey was conducted in seven villages of Islamabad Capital Territory, Bari Imam, Barroha,Golra Sharif, Saidpur, Malpur, Karlot and Shahdara. Wasim Wagaha, an expert on indigenous people’s issues in Pakistan, briefed the audience on the international campaign on indigenous people’s identity and rights and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
Lubna Dahar, while sharing the research findings, said that presently sexual and reproductive health problems were one of the major reasons behind mortality rate of women. “Social taboos in Pakistan are one of the main reasons behind these problems in sexual and reproductive health; for example, unmarried women and girls are discouraged to share their sexual health issues even with the doctors.”
Batool Iftikhar and Ibrar Hussain shared the methodology and problems in doing the research survey. The survey was a combination of questionnaire and a focus group discussion. The questionnaire contained approximately 90 questions focusing on themes like knowledge about reproduction and contraception, universal access to family planning services and contraceptive use, reproduction, knowledge of HIV/AIDS etc.
The survey was supported by Asia Indigenous People’s Pact (AIPP), a Thailand-based network of indigenous people’s organisations and was conducted in collaboration with Plan International Pakistan.
Great work every1.
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