Kathmandu, 11th February: The government has started providing services in a partnership format for the operation of family management services. The Ministry of Health and Population, Family Welfare Division has started adopting a coordinated policy of further collaboration and partnership with service providers, especially in the operation of comprehensive women’s health camps under the family management service.
The division believes that this has made the family management service effective and the comprehensive health camp has also been successful. The ministry has also been providing door-to-door services for family management. The District Public Health and Health Office, in coordination with the municipal level, has started providing services in the form of a partnership to identify the necessary service recipients through its mechanisms and the body providing family management services organizes sterilization camps at convenient places for the service recipients.
Dr. Bivek Kumar Lal, Director of the Department of Health Services, Family Welfare Division, informed that a new format has been introduced for the operation of the sterilization camp program to provide access to family management services. He said, “With this, service recipients have received the services they want in a quality manner at the most convenient place.” Sharmila Dahal Poudel, Head of the Family Planning and Reproductive Health Branch, said that it is necessary to further strengthen family management services to increase the utilization rate of family planning tools and services. She said, “It is necessary to coordinate further collaboration and partnership with service providers, especially in the operation of sterilization camps. We have adopted a coordinated framework in health federalism.”
Senior Advisor KP Upadhyay of MSI Nepal, which has been providing family management and safe abortion services in Nepal for a long time, says that the ‘modality’ of the comprehensive sterilization camp conducted by the Ministry of Health and Population, Family Welfare Division under the Family Management Service is very excellent. He says, “We, the District Public Health and Health Office, conduct sterilization camps in coordination and collaboration with the municipal levels. For this, we enter into an understanding with those bodies.” According to him, the understanding states which body will provide which service. The municipal level selects the location to conduct sterilization camps based on the needs, informs the service recipients about this by going to their doorsteps and providing information about the camp, and MSI provides the service through the ‘medical team’ of the partner organization Sunaulo Parivar Nepal, Senior Advisor Upadhyay informed that the service is being provided.
MSI, in collaboration with the concerned municipalities, had organized sterilization camps under family management in Rautahat, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa, Sarlahi, Saptari, Mahottari, Siraha, Bardiya, Nawalparasi (West), Morang, Kapilvastu, Rolpa, Kailali, Dang, Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Baglung, Gorkha, Lamjung, Pyuthan, Kailali, Dhading, Sunsari and Sindhuli districts in 2024. Female sterilization (9,855), male sterilization (387), family planning implants (151) and condoms (46) were used in the camps. Female sterilization is highly preferred, while male sterilization is least preferred.
Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr Prakash Budathoki says that there are still challenges in ending marriage below the age of 20, providing access to family planning services, expanding safe abortion services, and increasing awareness of sexual and reproductive health. He says, “It is necessary to further strengthen joint collaboration to provide access to family planning services and expand safe abortion services. For this, the ministry wants to collaborate further with all partner agencies.”
According to the Ministry of Health, 35 percent of Nepal’s teenage girls are married before the age of 18 and 10 percent before the age of 15. Similarly, although the legal age of marriage is 20, 41 percent of women are married between the ages of 10 and 18 and 76 percent before the age of 20. In Nepal, 14 percent of teenage girls aged 15-19 are already mothers or pregnant.
According to the latest Demographic and Health Survey (2022), the utilization rate of family planning tools and services is 53 percent. The utilization rate of modern family planning services is 42.8, and 23.7 percent of women of reproductive age are still not able to access family planning services. On the other hand, the declining birth rate and increasing unsafe abortions in Nepal are considered a matter of concern.
