Ensure sexual and reproductive health

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have profound significance in all of our lives to live a healthy life. It is interlinked with the good health of children, adolescents, youths, adults, and the people of all ages. In Bangladesh, girls and women, especially adolescent girls face superstitions and misconception during puberty, menstrual period, pregnancy, lactation and menopause due to lack of proper, necessary knowledge and awareness.
 Sexual and reproductive health and rights or SRHR is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction.  Research shows that sexual and reproductive ill health is one of the most common health problems for women aged in between 15 to 44 in developing countries, where pregnancy, unsafe abortions, childbirth or harmful customs, such as female genital mutilation, could endanger the lives of women.
Despite considerable efforts over the past 20 years, maternal mortality in the world is still very high, particularly in South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.  Unequal power relation between men and women makes it difficult for women and girls to decide over their own bodies and negotiate safer sex.
It must be established soon the right: sexual consent as a right, especially for the girls and women to prevent rape, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion, maternal and child mortality.
Considering many issues SRHR is a lifelong concern for all of us. This is equally important for all classes of the people of the society irrespective of age and marital status.  The global community has made major pace in improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. But unfortunately, millions of people, mostly women and adolescents, still lack access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services. These are integral parts to achieve all the shared global development goals. Sexual and reproductive ill health accounts for more than a third of the global burden of disease for women of childbearing age, and one-fifth of the burden for the whole population.
 The status of sexual and reproductive health of women in Bangladesh is unsatisfactory. Particularly, voice of the poor and vulnerable remains unheard at local level, and hard to reach areas. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child-marriage in the world.  The girls, also their spouses, enter marriage without having any significant sexual and reproductive health education.
Gender and cultural norms, stigma related to adolescent sexuality, myths and misperceptions, poor implementation of existing laws regarding marriageable age, all contribute to low levels of knowledge. Thus create barriers to get correct and quality SRHR information and services.
People often make confusion between sexual act and sexual education. They choose a very common, very often unreliable source of information, for example, friends, relatives, and others who have poor, inadequate knowledge and wrong concept. Although the policy environment in Bangladesh is supportive of reproductive health, but recognition of sexual health is still lacking. In fact, unfortunately SRHR issue has been illogically ignored by them for a longtime, those who were responsible to address and work on.
Furthermore, national policy initiatives are not always reflected in local level service implementation. This gap between policy and service delivery on the ground is reflected in the poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
 
As a public health specialist, and researcher, I got the opportunity to attend 9th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights. It was held on 27-30 November, 2017 in Vietnam. The theme of the conference was "Leave NO ONE Behind! Justice in Sexual and Reproductive Health." Under the said theme-- sub-themes were overcoming social, cultural and religious barriers in sexual and reproductive health; Towards a just economic order for sexual and reproductive health; Strengthening justice systems for sexual and reproductive health and rights; Making good quality sexual and reproductive health education available to all; and Advancing justice and equity in sexual and reproductive health and health care.
The conference offered a good platform for very brilliant discussions and exchange of local, regional, and global information through the august gathering of international experts, scholars, researchers, development partners, and GO-NGO representatives.  It was given greater emphasize on the collaboration that must be a prime way, and shared responsibilities to develop our thinking and understanding in the field of SRHR. And to bridge the gaps, to meet the unmet needs, and to follow the right  Targets and Goals of Sustainable Development (SDGs) to achieve by 2030 through proper integrity of all the stakeholders as well. 
The event in Vietnam systematically reviewed the performance of the Asia Pacific region, sub-regions, and countries including the good SRHR practices and lessons learned for diverse group and social settings. It identified the current and future roles and accountability of different stakeholders particularly NGOs, national and local governments, and development partners in achieving key SRHR results. It also explored new paradigms, innovative ideas, and strategies that would meaningfully address emerging SRHR issues, challenges, accountability of stakeholders in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.
The objective was to foster new alliances and to strengthen partnerships and cooperation in SRHR endeavors among diverse stakeholders from the region. The plenary sessions of the conference brought excellent opportunities to follow the discussions and the sessions well enough. Participants had the opportunity to learn the most recent global and regional SRHR issues. Above all, the discussants availed the good opportunities to explore ideas.
  So, considering all the SRHR related issues, the objective of the government and all the stake holders must be to ensure better sexual and reproductive health and associated rights for people of all the ages soon to ensure healthy lives,  to build healthy nation, and save valuable lives of all. 

The writer is a public health
specialist, researcher and a media personality