Childhood development : Govt working on national plan of action, says Iqbal

Says social indicators put Pakistan among least-developed countries

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal said on Monday that the government was working on a national plan of action for the cause of improving childhood development in Pakistan.

Addressing a roundtable conference on “Early Childhood Development in Pakistan” here at the ministry, Iqbal said that a working group had been set up to give solid recommendations regarding the plan of action for the cause of better childhood development.

The minister said that the conference had been convened to deliberate upon a conceptual framework to strategise programmes and adopt measures for improving the physical, social, intellectual and emotional health of children in Pakistan.

He said that economic indicators of Pakistan showed that the country was among the middle-income countries but, on the other hand, the social indicators were alarming, which put Pakistan among the least-developed countries.

Iqbal said that Pakistan had the highest ratio of child mortality in the world, while poor health, malnutrition and lack of breastfeeding were major health issues.

The minister said that in order to ensure better healthcare for the future generation, the federal government was taking numerous initiatives.

Later, participants and panelists of the conference were of the view that Pakistan had one of the highest rates of first day deaths and stillbirths with a ratio of 40.7 per 1,000 births.

They said that some mothers feel pressured to bear more children than they could support on a locally available nutritious diet.

However, in urban centres, some mothers were obese yet malnourished from a diet rich in processed, calorie-dense foods that contain few micronutrients.

The panelists further said that the chances of survival of a newborn child increased when breastfed within an hour of birth. The panelists also discussed promotion of breastfeeding, neonatal care, food-fortification, affordability of nutritious diet and early childhood psycho-social stimulation.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2016.