Murad launches report on factors stunting people of Thar

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has launched a study report on the assessment of stunting in Tharparkar, indicating that the major risk factors associated with malnutrition are 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 resources available to the vulnerable Thari population.

The study report was conducted on the initiative of the Sindh ombudsman in collaboration with the Regional Subsidy of International Ombudsman Institution (IOI), Research and Training Wing, and Planning & Development Department of the Sindh government.

The launching ceremony was held at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday and was attended by International Ombudsman Institute/Ombudsman Western Australia Chris Field, Principal Assistant of Chief of Staff to the President Rebecca Poole, Wafaqi Ombudsman Ejaz Qurshi, Parliamentary Secretary Health Qasim Soomro, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Chairman Planning and Development Board Hassan Naqvi and members of the civil society and others.

The CM highlighted the steps taken by his government to improve the health facilities and appreciated that the office of the ombudsman, saying such studies pointed out gaps to help the government take steps to fill them by improving service delivery.

He showed his complete support to implement the recommendations of the study and to increase the outreach of the office of the ombudsman for providing administrative justice at the doorsteps of the masses.

The CM assured the audience that his government was fully committed to resolving the issue of malnutrition, and endorsed the recommendations in the report. He urged the health department as well as all other stakeholders, including heads of the agencies related to nutrition-sensitive sectors, to implement these proposals in the letter and spirit.

Chris Field, president of the IOI, appreciated that Sindh ombudsman conducted research with regional subsidy support of the IOI regarding very important issues and expressed that his institution would also provide all possible support for such future programmes of the Sindh ombudsman, saying that such reports were also helpful to other members of the International Ombudsman Institutions.

Wafaqi Ombudsman Ejaz Qurshi, who is also the president of the Asian Ombudsman Association, highlighted the role of ombudsman offices in providing speedy and free-of-cost justice to the public throughout the country within the shortest possible time. Sindh Ombudsman Ajaz Ali Khan, in his address, welcomed the foreign delegates at the ceremony and expressed his gratitude that the CM transformed the recommendations of the ombudsman’s last study about girls' education into his own directives and his office had been supporting the Education & Literacy Department to implement the same in letter and spirit to improve the girl education in the province.

He said stunting in children below five years old has been a major problem in Pakistan since 2001. Stunting is a measure of chronic malnutrition and is the most crucial indicator of human capital development. It occurs in the first 1,000 days of life after conception till the age of two years and is highly irreversible, which not only increases morbidity and mortality but also retards physical and cognitive growth, diminishes learning capacity and school performance and leads to lower adult productivity.

At the start of the ceremony, the Planning and Development Department gave a presentation about the study on stunting and highlighted that the issue of stunting in children under five years old children has been a major problem in Pakistan for the last two decades.

Sindh’s stunting rate is 48.9 per cent as per National Nutrition Survey (NNS) - 2011 and 45.5 percent as per NNS-2018. As per the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2018 it increased to 50 per cent and Tharparkar’s rate is 50.67 percent.

The ratio is decreasing gradually due to the attention of the government since 2011 and the efforts made and the role played by the concerned donor organisations and private sector in multi-sectoral nutrition intervention.