Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina sought enhanced assistance from the United Nations (UN) for improving child and maternal health and empowering the womenfolk in the country, as she listed some setbacks in the population sector in recent times, reports UNB.

She made the call when Representative of UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) in Bangladesh Arthur Erken, on the eve of World Population Day, 11 July 2009, paid a courtesy call on her at the PM's Office Thursday.

The PM reiterated her government's commitment to establish social-safety net through creating substantial employment opportunities and empowering women, providing quality health services to people of all walks of life, particularly to mothers and children.

She said in line with the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of building a healthy nation, the last Awami League (AL) government had taken a project of setting up 18,000 community health clinics across the country and some 4,000 of the clinics were made functional in full swing.

The main purpose of the project was to take quality health facilities to the rural people, mothers and children, she said.

But, Hasina deplored, the last BNP-Jamaat government had stopped the community health clinic project "only for political reason".

People's longevity also increased during the five-year rule of AL government, but later the longevity dwindled, she told the UN executive.

"The community health clinics could have played a tremendous role in making the country's population healthy and creating employment opportunities in the rural areas," she said.

The present government will reintroduce the community health clinics as it believes that without a healthy population a country cannot advance towards sustainable development, the PM said.

Sheikh Hasina also told the UNFPA representative about the government's strong commitment for empowering the women.

She said that AL in the last general election gave direct nomination to a considerable number of women and now the Deputy Leader of the House, the Ministers for Agriculture, Home and Foreign Affairs and State Minister for Labour are all women, which reflects the present government's stand for women empowerment.

Sheikh Hasina described early marriage as one of the main obstacles to development of the women community and identified poverty, illiteracy and social insecurity as some of the major reasons behind early marriage.

She observed that through merely enacting and implementing laws early marriage could not be stopped. "People will have to be made educated and poverty must be eradicated to empower women."

The UNFPA official briefed the PM about the UN activities in support of the Bangladesh government's population policy.

He highlighted several features of the UNFPA's support, including improving maternal health, the promotion of family planning and addressing gender issues.