Poverty, lack of portable water among major causes of stunting: report
KARACHI: Chronic poverty, poor access to water, poor hygiene and sanitation practices, seasonal migration, early marriages, low birth spacing, lack of connectivity of transport and inadequate human resource are major risk factors behind stunting and malnutrition in Tharparkar, said the report of a study.
The study, titled Assessment of Stunting in Tharparkar, was launched by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at a ceremony held here. The study was conducted on the initiative of the Sindh Ombudsman with Regional Subsidy of International Ombudsman Institution (IOI) by Research and Training Wing, Planning & Development Department, Sindh.
The launching ceremony attended by International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) President/Ombudsman Western Australia Chris Field, Principal Assistant Ombudsman Rebecca Poole, Federal Ombudsman/Asian Ombudsman Association President Ejaz Qureshi, Sindh Ombudsman Ajaz Ali Khan, Parliamentary Secretary Health Qasim Soomro, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Planing and Development chairman Hassan Naqvi and members of civil Society and others.
Speaking on the occasion, CM Shah highlighted the steps taken by his government to improve the health facilities and appreciated that office of the Ombudsman through such studies pointed out gaps to help the government take steps to fill them by improving service delivery.
He stated that the province’s stunting rate was gradually decreasing as it was 48.9 per cent as per the National Nutrition Survey-2011 and 45.5pc as per NNS-2018.
Murad claims stunting among children under five is gradually decreasing in Thar; assures ombudsman its recommendations will be implemented
He showed his complete support to implement the recommendation of the study and to increase the outreach of the office of the Ombudsman for providing administrative justice at doorsteps to the masses.
IOI Ombudsman Field appreciated that the provincial ombudsman conducted the research with regional subsidy support of IOI regarding very important issues and expressed that his institution would also provide all possible support for such future programmes of the ombudsman as such reports were also helpful to other members of the institution.
Federal Ombudsman Qureshi highlighted the role of ombudsman offices in providing speedy and free-of-cost justice to the general public throughout the country within the shortest possible time.
Provincial Ombudsman Ajaz Ali Khan welcomed the foreign delegation, and while highlighting the achievements of the office of Ombudsman Sindh, expressed his gratitude that the chief minister converted the recommendations of the last study about girls’ education into CM directives and his office had been supporting the education and literacy department to implement the same in letter and spirit to improve the girl education in the province.
He said that stunting in children below five years old had been a major problem in Pakistan since 2001. Stunting is a measure of chronic malnutrition and occurs in the first 1,000 days of life after conception till the age of two years and was highly irreversible, which not only increases morbidity and mortality, but also retards physical and cognitive growth diminished learning capacity and school performance and leads to lower adult productivity.
At the start of the ceremony, the P&D department gave a comprehensive presentation about the study and highlighted that the issue of stunting in children under five years old has been a major problem in Pakistan for the last two decades. It was 41.6pc in 2001, 43.7pc in 2011, and 40.2pc in 2018, and remained globally critical.
As per theMultiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2018 it increased to 50pc and Tharparkar has 50.67pc compared to 63pc in MICS 2014.
It was claimed that the ratio wasdecreasing gradually due to the attention of the government since 2011, besides the efforts made and the role played by donors and private sector in multi-sectoral nutrition intervention.
Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023
