Our vulnerable children

The sad reality is, most children under five who die in Pakistan do so because of reasons that are entirely avoidable.

It’s a cold, rough world for children out here in Pakistan. This fact is confirmed by the child mortality statistics appearing in the Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed report by the United Nations. Children living in Pakistan, by and large, live a precarious and vulnerable existence. According to the report, as many as 86 children out of 1,000 die before the age of five, mostly owing to pneumonia or diarrhoea. Furthermore, the report states that Pakistan is one of five countries — including India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria  — that together contribute to 50 per cent of child mortality cases in the world, all among the world’s nearly 250 countries. Given these numbers, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) four of reducing child mortality seems far from reach.

The sad reality is that most children under five who die in Pakistan do so because of reasons that are entirely avoidable. Pneumonia and diarrhoea treatments have been in the books of medicine for a long time. The problem lies in that there is little awareness and action on the part of parents who neglect to bring their children in for treatment before it is too late. There is also little education about what safety health measures to follow in the home, such as immunisations and hygiene in terms of environment, food and water. Surely, a nation-wide campaign to spread awareness on child mortality and how to keep one’s children healthy would pique the interest of many parents. It would also allow the government to work towards removing the country’s name from the many horrendous global statistics lists on which it appears, such as this one on child mortality.

There is still some time left to work towards achieving the MDGs and that is exactly what the country should strive for. This requires the health department to first spread awareness on this dark global statistic and then implement the health measures suggested by the UN report to prevent child mortality in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd,  2013.

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