With a high total fertility rate of 5 births per woman, women's health is debilitated by frequent and closely spaced pregnancies. More than 40 percent of the total female population is anemic. The low health status of women is the result their lower social, economic, and cultural status. Social and familial control over women, including restrictions on mobility result in differential access of males and females to health services. Institutionalized gender bias within the health service delivery system in terms of lack of female service providers, and neglect of women's basic and reproductive health needs, intensify women's disadvantaged health status.
Women make a large and generally unrecognized contribution to the economy.
The labor force participation rate for women is under-reported in official data. The recent labor force survey cited the refined activity rate for women at 13.6 percent and 70 percent for males, while the crude activity rate was 9 percent and 47 per cent respectively 9 . Female labour is overwhelmingly concentrated in the agriculture sector, which employs 79 percent of the female labor force as compared to 57.3 per cent of that of males. In urban areas more than three quarters of economically active women are employed in the informal sector. The interplay of formal statutory laws, Islamic laws, and customary practices shape women's lives.