Arshad Ahmed Khan Karachi, Sep 6 (APP):The vibrant urban environment of Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, poses distinct health and lifestyle challenges, especially for its female residents. These challenges have intensified in 2026 due to increasing socioeconomic disparities, ongoing gender inequalities and the escalating impacts of climate change. Despite progress in technology and healthcare infrastructure, women in Karachi continue to encounter substantial obstacles that shape their overall well-being and …
Behind healthcare gains, Karachi women face well-being challenges
Arshad Ahmed Khan
Karachi, Sep 6 (APP):The vibrant urban environment of Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, poses distinct health and lifestyle challenges, especially for its female residents. These challenges have intensified in 2026 due to increasing socioeconomic disparities, ongoing gender inequalities and the escalating impacts of climate change.
Despite progress in technology and healthcare infrastructure, women in Karachi continue to encounter substantial obstacles that shape their overall well-being and access to opportunities, often in ways that remain unseen in the rush of city life.
Talking to APP about the health and lifestyle challenges of Karachi’s female population, Senior Instructor, Family Medicine, at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Dr. Sarah Mansoor said Karachi’s female population faces a double burden of disease.
At one end, nutritional deficiencies, particularly anemia, reproductive and maternal health concerns and delayed access to healthcare continue to persist, quietly shaping the health of women. At the other, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, sedentary lifestyles and mental health concerns are becoming increasingly prominent, presenting another side of the changing health landscape.
Talking to APP, Dr. Sarah Mansoor said improving women’ s health in Karachi therefore requires more than increasing healthcare facilities; it requires affordable preventive care, better health literacy, early screening and empowering women to prioritize their own health throughout their lives.
Quoting the National Nutrition Survey data, she said approximately 40 percent of women of reproductive age in urban Sindh are anemic, while nearly 44 percent of Pakistani women aged 15–49 are either overweight or obese. This illustrates the paradox increasingly encountered in clinics: nutritional deficiencies and excess weight can coexist within the same population.
She said these challenges cut across socioeconomic groups, but they do not affect all women equally.
Across these groups, Dr. Sarah said, some common denominators remain: women frequently prioritize the health of their families over their own, preventive healthcare is underutilized, and many conditions are addressed only once symptoms become significant.
She said the major difference across socioeconomic groups is often not the disease itself, but the ability to prevent, recognize and treat it. Women from lower-income communities face greater financial barriers, reduced access to preventive care and fewer opportunities for early diagnosis, she said.
She maintained that evidence from Pakistan shows a very strong relationship between household wealth and the use of maternal healthcare services. More affluent women have better access to healthcare, but are by no means protected from disease, particularly lifestyle-related conditions, stress and physical inactivity, she said.
Senior faculty member of the Department of Mass Communication at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Prof. Dr. Huma Nisar said the health and lifestyle challenges faced by a working woman are completely different from those of a housewife.
For a working woman, the very first challenge is how to maintain a balance between home and the office, ensuring that her family life and work life do not conflict with or hinder each other, she viewed.
She said that as working women, they are managing both outside and household chores, such as dropping off and picking up the kids, looking after household affairs, and then commuting to and from the university. In this process, they face numerous challenges.
She said one of those challenges is that “we don’t get a proper diet. For instance, in the morning, I am busy making lunch for the kids, but I don’t have breakfast myself; I just grab a cup of tea and rush off. Sometimes, the tea just sits there and gets cold because I’m in such a hurry, and my work never seems to end.”
She said they are unable to eat proper meals at the right time; sometimes their meals are skipped entirely because balancing household chores with outside work becomes extremely difficult. So, the biggest health issue for working women and she was sharing her own experience, is the lack of a proper diet.
She said that since their jobs require them to sit continuously, women start falling prey to health issues. “We aren’t eating much, but due to this sedentary lifestyle, we keep gaining weight. Because of the lack of a proper diet and routine, we working women don’t get any ‘me time’,” she said.
She said housewives have enough free time to carve out some moments for themselves after finishing all their chores, but working women barely have any time for themselves. In the hustle of giving proper time to the house, the kids and their work, and trying to balance it all, they end up neglecting themselves. This, she said, is the fundamental issue that takes a toll on both their lifestyle and health.
She said she practically has no social life because if she focuses on her social life, she cannot look after her family or give them the attention they need. So, the social life of working women is either non-existent or very limited; it becomes a choice between having a social life or a family life.
“And in the pursuit of improving our lifestyle, striving to go from good to the best, we struggle so much that our health is severely affected,” she said.
M.Phil Scholar at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Ms. Sana Khan told APP that Karachi’s women are dealing with a rather complicated lifestyle. There is the constant balancing act between work, family, social expectations, safety concerns, finances and finding time for themselves. Health often becomes secondary because women are so used to putting everyone else first, she said.
She said stress, poor sleep, lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns and limited access to proper healthcare can gradually turn into bigger issues. There is also a tendency to ignore problems such as chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety or hormonal issues instead of addressing them properly.
She expressed optimism that Karachi women are becoming much more conscious about fitness, mental well-being, self-care and preventive healthcare. “So I wouldn’t portray them simply as an unhealthy population; I’d look at the social and environmental pressures that shape their health choices and lifestyle,” she said.
For Karachi’s women, therefore, the health challenge is not confined to hospitals, clinics or treatment rooms. It begins much earlier in the daily struggle to balance work and family, the pressure to put others first, the lack of time for proper meals and exercise, and the unequal ability to access preventive healthcare.
The city’s fast-moving life can leave little room for women to pause and assess their own well-being. Behind professional responsibilities, household duties and social expectations, personal health can quietly become a forgotten priority.
The challenge, experts suggest, is therefore not simply to expand healthcare infrastructure but to make preventive health a practical and accessible part of women’ s everyday lives.
Early screening, nutrition awareness, physical activity, mental health support and affordable healthcare can help women recognize health concerns early and take steps before problems become more serious, turning timely care into a stronger foundation for well-being.
As Karachi continues to grow and change, improving women’ s health remains closely linked to the city’s broader social and economic well-being.
When women are able to prioritize their health, they are better placed to participate fully in their families, workplaces and communities. In the wider story of a changing Karachi, healthier women can become a powerful part of a healthier, stronger and more resilient city.
