The government has decided to launch a massive birth control campaign among Rohingyas amid fears that the refugee population could bulge as surges of ethnic minority Myanmar nationals hit the country’s southeastern region.
Officials said plans were being chalked up to start a massive motivational campaign among the Rohingyas to keep their family size smaller alongside providing them kits containing birth control pills and other contraceptives also to prevent outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases (STD).
“We have already mobilised 6 medical teams, three in Teknaf and three others are operating in Ukhia to create awareness among Rohingyas about sexual transmitted diseases and birth control methods,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim told BSS. He said the ministry took initiatives to provide them short term birth control kits which were expected to protect them from STDs as well.
Officials and experts said the initiative appeared crucial as the reproduction rate among the backward Rohingya community was high while they lacked ideas of birth control systems.
Director general of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad said a team led by the director general of family planning already visited the makeshift Rohingya camps earlier this week and developed a strategy to launch the campaign.
Primarily, he said, the ministry planned to provide them short-term family planning kits containing condoms, birth control pills and birth control injections.
“They are not familiar with the methods of controlling birth . . . as a result most of the families have five to seven children,” the health services chief said.
The development came as doctors earlier identified one of the Rohingya refugees to be a HIV carrier at their Kutupalong camp in Ukhia while the patient was kept in an isolated place to be treated properly treated.
