The Health Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Green Star Social Marketing on Friday organized an awareness walk in connection with 'World Population Day' in the Hazara division. A press release issued by the KP health department said that a large number of Lady Health Workers (LHW) and other staff of the department participated in the event.  The purpose of the awareness walk was to create awareness among people about the risks of the rapidly increasing population and related challenges. DHO Haripur Dr Syed Nasir Shah, Deputy DHO Dr Sher Bahadur, and Deputy DHO Dr Shehzad addressed the participants and underlined the need for birth spacing and mother and children healthcare to bring balance between population increase and socio-economic well-being. They said, "Family planning is one of the most cost-efficient interventions for maintaining a balance between population and socio-economic development." Dr Idris, National Program Coordinator, and Dr Ashfaq said that rapid population growth in KP was mainly caused by the high total fertility rate, adding that the rural fertility was quite high in the province as compared to the urban area. They called for educating the rural population, especially the females, and giving them gender equality in all fields of life to contain the risks of increasing population in the country.

 
Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP