Telephone counselling service offers sexual health advice to women in Nepal

Women’s health issues have remained a matter of deep concern in developing countries because of factors like poverty and lack of education. But something as simple and convenient as a telephone service is helping to bridge the information gap regarding sexual education in Nepal.

Marie Stopes International (MSI) had launched a free helpline number called Meri Saathi in 2011 with the aim to offer counselling on a variety of sensitive issues like safe sex, abortion, contraception, masturbation, penis size and menstruation. Even though the MSI office isn’t that big, the call operators receive up to as many as 150 calls a day from both men and women across the country, reports News Deeply.

This service proved to be critical in a country like Nepal where premarital sex is still considered taboo and abortion laws are quite stringent. In fact, deaths as a result from unsafe abortions account for more than 5 per cent of recorded maternal deaths.