Wisal Yousafzai
PESHAWAR: Pakistan is facing a silent crisis of malnutrition
that is amongst the worst in the world as every year around 1.5 million
children in Pakistan are suffering from malnutrition while around 50% death of
infant babies were cause of improper malnutrition.
This was stated by speakers at media round table conference
organized by Save the Children on Monday at a local hotel which attended by
representatives of print and electronic media.
On the occasion Deputy Director of Nutrition and
Reproductive Health Department Dr. Qaiser ali said that for the last three
years the health department were working on Nutrition and were get a positive
feedback as before the malnutrition was not taking a serious matter concern to
the health, adding that soon the law of breast feeding would be pass from the
provincial assembly.
He further said that the provincial government were taking
all efforts to aware the people about the nutrition, adding that breast feeding
should be encourage as Islam also give us the teaching to feed the babies at
least two years.
Dr Abdul Jamil, Health and Nutrition Specialist UNICEF KP
discussed overall progress on Millennium Development Goal 2015 MDGs,
challenges, policy framework and recommendations to tackle to the issue of
malnutrition. He said that according to National Nutrition Survey 2011 the
nutrition challenge facing the province is substantial. The province has a
dangerously high rate of nutritional stunting among children under age 5
(47.8%) as compared to 43.7% of the national average.
He further added that prevalence of wasting is 17.3% as
compared to 15.1% of the national average. As per World Health
Organization\\\\\\\'s standards, a national average of 15% or above is labeled
as an \\\\\\\"EMERGENCY\\\\\\\". These figures have not changed
significantly in the past decade and require special attention at all levels.
Dr. Jamil added that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata because of the displacement
most of the children were affected from malnutrition, adding that not only take
care of the infant baby but as well as give proper diet to her mother as well.
Provincial Manager Save the Children, Advocacy and Campaigns
Adnan Sajid emphasized the importance of putting nutrition on the agenda of
media in the ongoing pre election debate and in the post election scenario. He
said that malnutrition can be ended in a generation if government and civil
society work together and the issue is recognized and prioritized by all
stakeholders.
He added that it\\\\\\\'s time for action; we should focus
and look at nutrition as an investment and entry point to poverty reduction and
socio-economic development. He emphasized that political leaders and decision
makers must be aware about the situation of nutrition in order to opt for and
to prioritize effective policies and programs. He also emphasized for better
resource to address root causes of malnutrition.
Dr Irshad Danish, Consultant Nutrition Advocacy shared the
overall situation of malnutrition in Pakistan particularly in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa beginning with the concepts of stunting and wasting. The rate of
change for both stunting and wasting has been very slow in Pakistan, emphasized
Dr Danish. He explained that poverty is not the only reason behind child
malnutrition in the country. There is a strong relationship between fertility,
disease burden and practices such as hand washing, feeding practices especially
exclusive breastfeeding.
