-Sushma Shrestha
The COVID 19 pandemic has already had profound impact on the lives of million people around the globe.Corona Virus Disease 2019, caused by SARS- CoV-2 which was first identified on 31 December, at Wuhan Province of China, has infected over 2.9 million and killing more than 207,270 lives. WHO has declared it to be Pandemic as it has been spreadingacross more than 213 countries in alarming rate. US has reported the highest number of infections at 965,933 with 55,415 deaths.The emergency that we are facing is becoming increasingly uncertain and more and more countries around the world face restriction and national lockdown.
In response to pandemic, Government of Nepal has also declared Weeklong nationwide lockdown on 24th March, 2020, hours after 19 year old Nepali girl returned from France via Qatar Airways tested positive for COVID 19 as second case. There have been 52 new cases with 16 completely recovered till date. With the extension of lockdown daily life of people along with various other aspects is obvious to get effected.
And one of thefield that we really could not ignore is Family Planning Service.Nepal, on 2015 had committed to FP 2020 to increase the number of additional users of family planning by an estimated 1 million and the proportion of demand satisfied to 71% by 2020. Nepal Government along with various NGOs are working on it to achieve the projection. But the pandemic-imposed lockdown has really created hurdle on its way. As health system shift to prevent and treat people with COVID 19, the increasing need of FP Services is quite overshadowed.
During lockdown, confined to their homes withspouse providedplenty of free time which will obviously increase demand for Contraceptivesto avoid unplanned pregnancies, but the accessibility and availability of FP services could not be ensured. According to MSI Nepal, large number of their centers has been closed, outreach suspended, this will directlyaffect clients who are seeking for service along with them whose working period of contraceptives device, they use is already expired. They are receiving increased number of calls from women willing to abort. MSI Nepal has projected to provide LARC service to 1500 client on April via outreach channel (key to reach rural women) only, but with all service suspended in order to avoid drawing crowds and risk of workers spreading the virus from one community to another, there is no any chance of reaching that number of client. Right now, neither service provider nor clients are being able reach service station due to mobility restriction.Firstly, women seeking for service fear venturing out and being beaten by security forces and accused of defying the new restrictionand even though if the client somehow managed to reach Health Center, Health service provider are not yet ready to provide service that easily due to risk of falling victim to the virus.With border closed and production disrupted it istough to supply commodities from manufacturer to point of service resulting shortage of Contraceptive devices.
All these will have devastating effect on SRH of womenas they struggle to collect contraceptives of their choice, limiting their access to other reproductive health care services as well.Unavailability of FP services on time leads to unsafe sex, increasing unmet need of FP Services. Considering lockdown, its not that easy to get pregnancy kit and emergency contraceptives on time. This will increase risk for unsafe abortion and ultimate death as well. This is a chain reaction. MSI warned that up 9.5 million women and girls would not access family planning services this year because of the pandemic, which could result in as many as 3million unintended pregnancies and 2.7 million unsafe abortions.So, in this crucial time SRH service must be in high priority. If SRH service still are not deemed as essential service during lockdown, it will have disastrous lasting impacts on individuals, families, and global community.
-Sushma Shrestha
Club President (RY 2018/19)
Rotaract Club of Kathmandu Mid Town