UNFPA will soon start demographic survey
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will soon begin a demographic survey on the Rohingyas to assess their health and family planning needs.
"There is no demographic and health data on the Rohingyas. We need to know that for any effective intervention," said UNFPA Acting Representative Iori Kato at a press conference in the capital yesterday.
He said UNFPA and icddr,b have already signed a contract in this regard and the preparatory works are going on before conducting the survey.
The survey would include data on the family size, use of contraceptives, birth and death rates as well as violence they were facing before, during and after the crackdown in Myanmar.
The survey will begin at the end of this month and end in next January.
Over 600,000 Rohingyas, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar, fled violence in Rakhine to Bangladesh since August 25, causing a humanitarian crisis in Cox's Bazar. They joined some 200,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh in the previous years.
Health and family planning experts recently told The Daily Star that the authorities need to begin counselling on birth control and making available the contraceptives as acceptable to the community people.
UNFPA Regional Director Bjorn Anderson, who visited the Rohingya camps on Tuesday and yesterday, said any methods of contraceptives offered to the Rohingya should be on voluntary basis.
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