Under-nutrition issues in KP: policymakers urged to take concrete steps

Health experts have urged the policymakers to take concrete steps to overcome with the under-nutrition issues in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and stressed the need for effective implementation of the provincial integrated nutrition strategy and relevant laws in this regard.
Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, in connection with observance of the Universal Children Day, provincial president of Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA) Prof Dr Irshad Ahmad said that nearly half of all children in Pakistan are malnourished, and this undermines their mental and physical growth, as well as the country's prospects.
He said the province has a dangerously high rate of nutritional stunting among children under age 5 (50 to 55%) as compared to 43.7% of the national average. He said the stunting occurs when a child's growth and development is impaired from the poor nutrition. He added the stunting can deprive children from the opportunity to reach their full potential in life.
Flanked by health specialist, Dr Abdul Jamil, nutrition expert, Dr Aean Khan, Consultant Scaling-UP Nutrition (SUN) Cell of Khyber P&D department, Mohammad Iqbal, Dr Zia Mohammad, and others, Dr Irshad said the ratio of breastfeeding in first six months is nearly 37 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to lack of awareness among mothers to start immediately their babies after birth, He urged the mothers to continue breastfeeding up to 2 years of age to prevent from their babies from stunting and malnutrition issues.
Therefore, he emphasized on Implementation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Integrated Nutrition Strategy and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Act 2015. He said the many children were died to pneumonia, measles, diarrhea, and other chronic diseases due to lack of proper vaccination, which is a matter of grave concern, and should be addressed by creating proper awareness to bring behaviour change among parents.
Dr Irshad, who is also Chairman of Department of Pediatric Khyber Medical College Peshawar, and Associate Dean MTI Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar said that poverty was not a root cause of high mortality rate of newborn. He stressed the need for best healthcare facilities to expecting mothers and their child at house as well as hospital.
Keeping in view the high-rate of nutritional stunting and mortality rate of newborn, he said the PPA is going to observe November 20, Universal Children Day, in a joint collaboration with provincial health department, Unicef and Planning and Development SUN cell, aimed at to highlighting the children rights, issues and would formulate a holistic strategy for their amicable resolution.
He informed that different awareness programmes, walks and seminars would also organise on the day under the banner of PPA and other provincial government line agencies to highlight the children rights on this particular day.
Dr Irshad demanded of the provincial government to officially observe of November 20 as Children Day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in order to all government and non-governmental organizations, and relevant stakeholders set-together to discuss on children's rights, needs and others issues and they should formulate a joint strategy to address them collectively.
Dr Jamil said that there was a dire need of hour to raise voice for rights of children, especially under five-year. He said they are making efforts to discuss all issues relating of mal-nutrition and stunting with policymakers and legislators to sort-out of appropriate solution of them. He said the breadfasting basic right of newborn is during the first two-years of the birth.
Similarly, he said many children were out of schools, which needed to be enrolled in educational institutional institutions. He said that it's constitutional right of every child to get education. He urged the legislators and policymakers to take prompt action and to address issues relating to children on priority basis.
Mohammad Iqbal said the mal-nutrition and stunting are biggest issue, for which the incumbent provincial government had mobilized appropriate financial resources and step taken to address the children issues, particularly relating to mal-nutrition. He said the efforts were being made to strictly implement relevant laws to prevent tendency of use formula milk and other supplement products to newborn during first six months of birth.