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Community Health Workers
In the 1990's, two agancies in Pakistan started villiage-based community health worker programs in Pakistan. The Ministry of Population Welfare started planning a program in 1992 based on a similiar program in Bangladesh. This program recruited married women, with at least 10 years of schooling, that lived in rural areas, and trained them to provide family planning services to their communities. The aim of these services was to reduce the fertility rate and slow population growth. The Ministry of Health (Pakistan) started a similar program in 1994 called "lady health workers." This program emphasized maternal and child health, and also delivered family planning services. Both groups of women provide door to door health and family planning services, supplied with oral and injectable contraceptives and condoms to distribute to their communities. One study in 2002 showed that in areas with 2 or more community based workers there was a 7% increase in the use of modern, reversible contraceptive methods. An evaluation of the lady health worker program showed improved health indicators in the populations served. In 2006 there were 96,000 lady health workers.