LAHORE: Labour productivity is one of the major causality of high prevalence of malnutrition in Pakistan. The World Nutrition Report 2016 highlights the poor state of nutrition among Pakistani children and women.
It is a known fact that undernourishment has a statistically significant and substantively important negative impact on growth rates. Malnutrition and poor diets also constitute the number-one driver of the global burden of disease. Empirical evidence shows that the annual GDP losses from low weight, poor child growth, and micronutrient deficiencies average 11 percent in Asia and Africa. This loss is greater than the loss experienced during the 2008–2010 financial crises.
According to the report, the prevalence of stunting in Pakistan is 45 percent - highest in the region – with India at 37.8, Bangladesh 36.1 percent, Sri Lanka 14.1 percent, and Afghanistan 40.9 percent. The lowest stunted population is in Germany, being 1.3 percent only.
Childhood stunting is a condition that is defined as height for age below the fifth percentile on a reference growth curve. If, within a given population, substantially more than 5 percent of an identified child population have heights that are lower than the curve, then it is likely that said population would have a higher-than-expected prevalence of stunting. It measures the nutritional status of children. It is an important indicator of the prevalence of malnutrition or other nutrition-related disorders among an identified population in a given region or area.
The childhood wasting prevalence is 10.5 percent in Pakistan, 15.1 percent in India, 14.3 percent in Bangladesh, 21.4 percent in Sri Lanka and 9.5 percent in Afghanistan. Wasting or thinness indicates in most cases a recent and severe process of weight loss, which is often associated with acute starvation and/or severe disease.
However, wasting may also be the result of a chronic unfavourable condition. Provided there is no severe food shortage, the prevalence of wasting is usually below 5 percent, even in poor countries. The Indian subcontinent, where higher prevalence is found, is an important exception. On the severity index, prevalence between 10-14 percent are regarded as serious, and above or equal 15 percent as critical.
Anaemia among women is a global problem. In the United States where the prevalence is lowest, 11.9 percent women suffer from Anaemia. In Pakistan 51.1 percent of the women are anaemic and is ranked 180 out of 185 countries.
The percentage of anaemic women is 48.1 percent in India, 43.5 percent in Bangladesh25.7 percent in Sri Lanka and 33 percent in Afghanistan. Anaemia becomes life threatening if not diagnosed and treated. Too little oxygen in the body can damage organs. With anaemia, the heart must work harder to make up for the lack of red blood cells or haemoglobin. This extra work can harm the heart and even lead to heart failure.
The report also reveals that the prevalence of diabetes in the region is highest in Pakistan being 10.8 percent of the whole population of the country. It is 95 percent in India, 9.4 percent in Bangladesh, 9.7 percent in Sri Lanka and 9.6 percent in Afghanistan.
The correlation between labour productivity and real wages both across countries and over time is quite high, indicating the importance of productivity growth rates for the improvement of a country’s living standards. Traditionally, human capital has been interpreted as education and skills. Recently, however, increasing attention has been given to health as a form of human capital.
Common diseases and illnesses in the developing world such as undernourishment, malaria and waterborne diseases have non-fatal consequences, particularly on adults who participate in the labour force. Affected individuals remain in the labour force, but their productivity is severely impaired.
The UN report has advised the governments to scale up the proven nutrition specific interventions and set targets for nutrition-sensitive spending. Researchers need to create a unified, conceptual framework for understanding the underlying drivers of overweight/obesity, micronutrient deficiency, stunting, and wasting—and identify common drivers of all forms of malnutrition. It also asked them to increase budgetary allocations to nutrition specific programmes and expand the share of sectoral budgets that aim to improve nutritional status.