News
Malnutrition threatening lives of marginalised groups in Balochistan
By Abdul Shakoor Khan
QUETTA: Balochistan is facing the risk of malnutrition, while mortality rate among children and women belonging to the socially marginalised groups in the province has risen alarmingly.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already declared emergency in Balochistan in view of the indicators of Global Acute Malnutrition. Ten out of total 20 high food insecure districts of the country, are in this province. “Against the threshold level of 15 percent classified by the WHO, as many as 16 percent of children in Balochistan are acute malnourished, 52.2 percent upto five-year age stunted and 39.6 percent underweight,” says Miss Jawahar Habib, Communication Officer, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Balochistan, talking to APP.
Besides five million children, about 70 percent women in the province are too suffering from malnutrition, nearly half of them being anemic and Vitamin A deficient, as suggested by the National Nutrition data. The province has the highest infant and mother mortality in the country and that is mainly because of malnutrition. The Nutrition Cell, along with WHO and UNICEF, has been working in nine out of 32 districts of the province, which are highly prone to malnutrition. It has only been able to cover their only 43 percent population, leaving the rest 57 percent at the mercy of diseases.
Miss Jawahar notes that the child and mother health situation in the Baloch-populated areas is turned grim. “If preventive measures were not put in place, Tharparkar-like situation may develop in these areas.” Ehtaramul Haq Kabdani, District Nutrition Coordinator Kharan, says, “With available resources, we could only cover about 35,000 of the district’s estimated population of 170,000.” Most of the beneficiaries of anti-malnutrition drive belong to urban areas, while more than 90 percent affected people reside in remote parts of the district, who need assistance and health education.
According to Akhtar Shah, District Nutrition Coordinator Killa Saifullah, less rains, growing poverty, small number of lady health workers and insufficient funds impede access to the affected people. After Sindh, Balochistan has the highest level of food insecurity in the country. About 63 percent of households in the province are food insecure, with 18 percent of them classified as food “insecure with hunger” and 11.5% as food “insecure with severe hunger”. Overall 90 percent districts are classified as “extremely high” to “high” food insecure. None is qualified to be “food secure”.
Except the areas bordering Punjab, most of the province is mountainous, relatively barren and arid, and not suitable for agriculture. Only 15% of average household monthly income in the province comes from crops production or livestock. “There is continued high level of food insecurity in Balochistan, caused by uncontrollable factors feeding to the acute malnutrition,” says Nicole CARN, provincial chief of World Food Programme (WFP). Though the government has been striving hard to cope with the daunting challenge, but the security situation, geographic location of the province, huge swathe of land and scattered population complexes the issue of malnutrition manifold, she adds. The WFP along with the provincial government has been assisting the malnourished children, pregnant and lactating women to prevent stunting and micronutrient deficiencies in the nine districts through LHWs. However, only 28 percent of households are reached by LHWs in the province as compared to a national coverage of 83 percent.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk