Death of a mother and her children

KARACHI: This is with reference to your report “Mother kills 4 children, herself” (June 26). The spate of such family suicides reflects on the poverty related statistics published in several reports. According to a World Bank report titled “Sparing lives, better reproductive health for poor women in South Asia” 37.4 per cent of Pakistani children under the age of five are malnourished and their nutritional status may worsen if food prices continue to rise. The government's own figures say that percentage of the population living in poverty jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 per cent in the last three years. It estimates that there were 35.5 million people living below the poverty line in 2005 and now this number has gone past 65 million.

Reduced spending in the social sector spending has decreased the standard of living in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2010.