45% children in Pakistan under fed, says report

One in every 14 children dies before reaching the age of one

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranks low on the social development index of child and maternal health, which reflects the level of nutrition, education and access to health services.

Although infant and neonatal mortality rates have considerably decreased worldwide over the last two decades, the situation has not improved in the country. One in every 14 Pakistani children dies before reaching the age of one, and one in 11 does not survive to its fifth birthday, states a report compiled by the office of the federal ombudsman in collaboration with the Unicef.



Health and nutrition

Childhood poverty is directly linked to malnutrition, where parents fail to provide adequate healthcare and nutrition to their children.

A considerable number of children and mothers have no or limited access to health and education services.  According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13, around 45% of children show evidence of chronic malnutrition or stunting and 11% are acutely malnourished requiring urgent treatment.

“Stunting slows down mental and physical growth,” Dr Irshad Danish, National Programme Coordinator for Scaling Nutrition-Civil Society Alliance told The Express Tribune.



Quoting the figure of 45% malnutrition in the country, he said, “This means our future generation will not only be mentally and physically stunted, but will also be unskilled and lag behind the competing world.” He urged that the government improve the situation of malnutrition in the country, besides enforcing implementation on the existing legislation on breastfeeding.

Education

Pakistan is amongst the nine countries, which have the largest number of primary-age group out-of-school children.

Estimates for out-of-school children show that there are 6.7 million out-of-school children in the country, of which 55% are girls.



Given their relative higher populations, there are 3.1 million and 1.9 million out-of-school children in Punjab and Sindh respectively, followed by Balochistan at 0.56 million and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 0.48 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2016.