Mingora is a city situated in the Swat district, Malakand division and Babuzai tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Mingora’s long history dates back to the remains of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Mingora is the largest city and the epicentre of social, cultural, and economic activities in the Malakand division and also the largest in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mingora is situated at the height of 984 meters (3228 feet) and is the third-largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the 26th largest in Pakistan with a population of 331,091 according to the 2017 census. The language spoken in Mingora is Pashto but people also speak other languages like Kohistani and Urdu.
The people of Mingora are extremely respectful to their elders as this leads to a healthy relationship between families and societies. Hospitality is also one of the good perspectives of the Mingora people. Another positive point of Mingora people is that they use natural food products for eating. They like to eat homegrown vegetables, poultry, meat, eggs, and fruits and that’s the reason for the good health of the people. The food needs of people vary according to the area.
Sadly, though, the people of the region are not well-educated. Therefore, they are not aware of medical healthcare facilities just like vaccines. It also leads to negative practices when it comes to health. They do not know the methods of family planning. The women of this area don’t regularly visit health care centres like family clinics and rural health centres during pregnancies. Most of the deliveries occur at home owing to superstitious beliefs about clinical deliveries. Due to this, most of the babies die during unsafe home deliveries because the people have wrong perceptions and family beliefs. It’s one of the reasons most babies die during and after the pregnancy period.
To increase the educational level of the people there is a need for an appropriate schooling system for the children. They need to attain childhood education as well as higher education. This way, they will learn about advanced technology, vaccination for children and the use of aseptic techniques during deliveries. For the betterment of people, there should be public seminars to introduce advanced technology in their lives.
Women should be given acknowledgement about the family planning method and basic information about the antenatal and newborn child.
The government should put a check and balance on the record of vaccination so that it could lead to forming policies in the whole area.
Illegal foster mothers should be banned in the area to put a curb on deliveries performed without any sterilised instruments.
There should be government clinics available for people and treatment should be free so that poor women will not have to take risks during pregnancy.
Media can play an important role in educating people about everything happening around the world.
Authored by Manahil Jabbar, Anam Mukhtiar, Noor-ul-Saher, Tayyaba Fatima, Nilma Samuel, Amna Sultan
