Open AccessTHE ROLE OF PUNJAB RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAMME IN PROVIDING HEALTH FACILITIES TO RURAL WOMEN;
Author(s) -
Ayesha Riaz,
Sher Muhammad,
Ijaz Ashraf,
Aisha Siddique,
Khalid Mahmood
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the professional medical journal/the professional medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2071-7733
pISSN - 1024-8919
DOI - 10.29309/tpmj/2014.21.05.2532
Subject(s) - empowerment , simple random sample , rural area , socioeconomics , medicine , rural health , unit (ring theory) , population , systematic sampling , environmental health , economic growth , psychology , sociology , mathematics education , pathology , economics
Despite the fact that women account for more than half of the total worldpopulation, they are still not considered equal to men. The health of rural women in Pakistanis very poor because of the lack of health services and competent health workers. Besidesgovernment health centres, hospitals and many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)are also working in the rural areas for providing social services to rural women. Punjab RuralSupport Programme is also working for socio-economic empowerment of rural women. PRSPbegan to provide health facilities to the poor people in villages through Basic Health Units(BHUs). Objectives: To analyze the role of PRSP in providing health facilities to women in ruralarea. Design: A multistage simple random sampling technique was used for the study. Setting:District Faisalabad. Material & Methods: The population for the study consisted of rural womenonly who were members of the Community Organizations (COs) of PRSP. Out of the eight townsof district Faisalabad, four towns which cover rural areas (Samundri, Iqbal town, Jaranwala,and Chak Jhumra) were selected. Four field units of PRSP are working in these four towns i.e.Salarwala in Chak Jhumra, Satiana in Jaranwala, Khidarwala in Samundri, and Dijkot in IqbalTown. These field units had 214, 203, 170 and 238 female COs, respectively. A sample of 10%COs was selected from each field unit randomly. Thus the total selected COs were 82. Fivemembers from each CO were selected at random. In this way the total sample size for the studywas 410 respondents. A reliable and validated data collection instrument consisting of openand close ended questions was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS. It was concludedthat respondents were satisfied with certain facilities like availability of female doctors in BHUs,availability of medicines and availability of competent and qualified paramedics. Provision ofbasic tests (blood, sugar, pregnancy and haemoglobin etc.) was very weak area which neededmuch improvement. Conclusions: It was also concluded that respondents were satisfied withthe behaviour of staff at BHUs. However, provision of basic medical equipment needed attentionfrom the authorities.