Children suffer malnutrition in Sanghar

This signifies a very dangerous situation, says additional deputy commissioner

HYDERABABD: In a district blessed with huge deposits of oil and gas, 53% of children suffer malnutrition, according to the official figures. A meeting of the district administration and the health officials in Sanghar district on Friday was informed about the alarming situation as the percentage is higher than even the province's 48%.

"This signifies a very dangerous situation," said additional deputy commissioner Subhash Chandar. He said that under the Sindh government's health Sindh initiative, a campaign will be launched in Sanghar to provide food supplements to such children.

Shaukat Ali Sathio, monitoring officer of Accelerated Action Plan for Reduction of Malnutrition, informed that the programme is being launched in nine districts of Sindh where there is higher incidence of undernourishment. Education, health, population, local government, agriculture, livestock and other relevant government departments are also being engaged in the exercise.



"The programme aims to reduce the percentage of malnutrition from 48% to 30% in a span of four years," he told.

According to Sathio, the deputy commissioners in each of the nine districts will be assigned the responsibility of coordination besides the role of monitoring the campaigns.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2018.