'Pakistan has third highest percentage of stunted children globally'

"Under-5 stunting rate was much higher in Pakistan with the percentage of 44, which is the third highest percentage of stunted children in the world. In Punjab, every 17 in 50 children (under-5) were "stunted" which was alarming." This was revealed by Dr Tahir Manzoor, health specialist, Unicef while speaking at a consultative session on "district malnutrition addressing committee (DMAC) sensitisation to roll out the multi-sectoral nutrition strategy (MSNS).
Describing malnourishment as the leading cause of stunted growth, he said this could also double the risk of children dying before they turned five, increase the risk of brain damage, and lead to the lack of normal cognitive development in children, destroying their chances of leading normal lives as adult. Addressing the session, Punjab P&D Member Health Dr Shabana Haider emphasised on a co-ordinated effort on the part of all government departments at all levels for addressing this critical human development issue facing the province which had a dire impact.
She said that it was imperative upon the DCOs, EDOs and other sectoral focal persons to ensure that the Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy was implemented in letter and spirit and that the monthly progress reports were shared with the provincial nutrition steering committee, as the body overseeing the implementation of the strategy.
Dr Shabana reiterated that Planning and Development Department was co-ordinating efforts to implement the MSNS in Punjab to address the issue of stunted growth in children and toward this end district malnutrition addressing committees (DMACs) have been constituted for all districts.
The purpose of this sensitisation meeting was to apprise stakeholders of the mandate of DMAC and its responsibility in implementing the government's multi-sectoral strategy to address the issue of malnutrition, she disclosed. The sensitisation session was a series of meetings to be held at divisional level to apprise district committees of their mandate. The participants of the session were united in their opinion that malnutrition and stunting could imperil our future and expressed their resolve towards addressing the issue.