By Mehrab Shah Afridi
ISLAMABAD: The Population Council convened a Media Coalition Meeting to present new evidence on the reproductive health needs of Pakistan’s most vulnerable populations and to highlight the central role of the media in amplifying district-level disparities and promoting equitable development.
Welcoming the participants, Dr Ali Mir, Senior Director at the Population Council, emphasized that Pakistan’s development agenda could not advance without confronting the profound inequities identified through an Index for Pakistan that maps district vulnerabilities. Reflecting on the findings, he said that basic health, education, and livelihood services were failing to reach millions who needed them most.
“These structural gaps are not abstract; they are lived realities,” he remarked. “Unless we acknowledge these disparities and create public visibility around them, our policies will continue to fall short.” The presentation on district-level evidence was delivered by Dr G. M. Arif, Technical Advisor at the Population Council, and Ikram ul Ahad, the Council’s Manager of Communication.
The presenters explained that the most vulnerable districts faced far higher fertility rates, limited access to basic health services, and minimal outreach from Lady Health Workers (LHWs). In districts such as Chagai, Jhal Magsi, Kohat, Umerkot, and Lodhran, many rural households had not been visited by an LHW in the past month, leaving communities without essential family planning counselling.
Educational deprivation, particularly the extreme distance to girls’ secondary schools in Kohistan and Kohlu—often exceeding 70 kilometers—further restricted women’s empowerment and reproductive health decision-making. “The District Vulnerability Index is a story of people, not numbers,” he said.
