Speakers say most kids lack health, education rights

PESHAWAR: Speakers, most of them seasoned paediatricians, on Monday lamented that being fourth largest child population country of the world, the majority of children in Pakistan still remain without access to their basic rights of health and education.
The participants raised questions over the poor immunisation mechanism of children and an alarming decline in breastfeeding.
They were speaking at a seminar held in connection with the United Nations Universal Children’s Day here.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) had organised the event aimed at highlighting rights of the children.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Assad Qaisar chaired the seminar as chief guest while Deputy Speaker, Prof Mehr Taj Roghani, also a prominent paediatrician, was the guest of honour.
The Universal Children Day is marked worldwide on November 20 to promote awareness on children’s rights.
Senior paediatricians, including Prof Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, Prof Abdul Hameed, Prof Dr Irshad Ahmad, president PPA, Prof Dr Gohar Rahman and others attended the event.
Prof Abdul Hameed in his detailed presentation pointed out that Pakistan was among the countries where infant mortality rate was the highest.
“In Pakistan, 79 children, out of 1000, die every year. It is very unfortunate as Pakistan’s position is below than Afghanistan and Bangladesh in terms of infant mortality rate,” said Prof Hameed.
He said that 32 per cent children in Pakistan were born with low birth weight, saying only 37 per cent of mothers were exclusively breastfeeding their children up to six months.
He said in 1964, when he joined the medical profession as a paediatrician, 50 per cent of mothers used to breastfeed children. “I don’t know what has happened to the mothers today. Why have they stopped breastfeeding,” he raised a question.
Prof Hameed said 2/3 of the children died under the age of five years due to pneumonia, diarrhea and other treatable infections such as malaria, TB and typhoid.
The paediatrician questioned decline in immunisation of children, saying as per official data, 57.71 children are being immunized, but as per his own information only 40 per cent of the children are being vaccinated.
According to Prof Hameed, only 16 percent of the births were attended by skilled birth attendants and the remaining are handled by unskilled people mostly in ghost maternity centers.
He said it was apparently this reason that 80 per cent of the babies are not being registered of their birth among the poor social class.
Also, Prof Hameed said that despite the fact the government has been spending a lot of its resources on provision of health services, 40 per cent of the pregnant ladies don’t avail antenatal care during pregnancy.
“Most of the time, gynecologists serving in the public sector hospitals are attending births in private clinics or houses located on the hospital premises,” he told the participants.
He said Pakistan was a signatory to the declaration as well as convention on the rights of children but couldn’t practically take measures that could have ensured protection of the rights of children. He said that 30 per cent of the children are missing their primary school enrolment.
Prof Abdul Hameed pointed out that 50 per cent of the children in Pakistan were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or PSTDs due to violence and roadside checkpoints manned by armed security personnel.
“The terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar has badly affected children in Pakistan. Every day they pass through roadside checkpoints which has negative impact on their mind,” said the senior paediatrician.
Another senior paediatrician, Prof Ashfaq Ahmad also highlighted suffering of children and urged the need for raising awareness about their rights.
He said 80 percent of the births were not reported and some are born in ghost centers run by untrained people.