CM to declare malnutrition emergency in province soon

Rawalpindi

Member Planning and Development Department Punjab Dr Shabana Haider has said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will soon declare malnutrition emergency in the province to overcome malnutrition through a comprehensive and robust strategy and involvement of various departments at the district level that will work at the union council level.

She said malnutrition addressing committees have been established at the district level that include senior officers from health, education, agriculture, livestock and fisheries departments to implement the strategy and get tangible results.

She said this while addressing a one-day seminar on district malnutrition addressing committee at a local hotel here. Provincial Chief World Food Programme (WFP) Shezada Rashid, Unicef Punjab Health and Nutrition Specialist Dr Tahir Mehmood, Chief Nutritionist Muhammad Aslam and representative of WFP Dr Lamia Mehmood, besides senior district officers of health, education, agriculture, fisheries from Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock districts were also present on the occasion.

Member Planning and Development Department Punjab Dr Shabana Haider said malnutrition is the bigger issue than loadshedding because Pakistan's DGP will increase by 2.5 per cent if the issue of loadshedding is resolved, but DGPR will increase by 10 per cent if the issue of malnutrition is addressed.

She said according to National Nutrition survey 2011, the trend of breastfeeding has reduced to 17 per cent from 51 per cent in last ten years and this alarming situation is also a major cause of malnutrition in the newborn. She said malnutrition badly damages mental health of the children due to which education is also suffered and it also causes diseases like hypertension, diabetes, paralysis and other fatal diseases.

Unicef Punjab Health and Nutrition specialist Dr Tahir Mehmood said the Punjab government has prepared a revolutionary and robust strategy to address the issue of malnutrition and it will have far-reaching consequences. He said that according to the National Nutrition Survey 2011, 4.5 million children in Punjab are underweight and 4.5 million are also stunted children, and that situation can be improved through better nutrition.