Mother and Child Nutrition Week to commence from Oct 1 across Punjab

LAHORE: Health Department Punjab on Friday announced an awareness campaign on mother and child health and nutrition, ARY News reported.

Project Director Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Program (IRMNCH & NP) Dr. Syed Mukhtar Hussain Shah while announcing the week-long drive said that after years of neglect, stunting now been identified as a major global health priority.

The drive will commence from October 1 and end on October 6.

Purpose of this drive is to cater growing problem of malnutrition and immunize the children and mothers against diseases.

“During upcoming awareness week IRMNCH & NP’s teams would reach more than 10 million children, minor girls and one million pregnant women in door to door drive,” said Mr. Shah.

He said that pregnant women will also be provided iron and folic acid tablets free of cost.

“Punjab is the largest and most populous province of the country and plays an imperative role in the economy of Pakistan but despite all this, the food security and malnutrition indicators show a dismal picture,” he regretted.

According to latest MICS 2014, acute malnutrition has risen to 17.5 percent from 15.7 in the recent years while stunting stood at 33.5 percent.

Project Director IRMNCH & NP said that during the awareness drive, 2.8 million children under two would be fed vitamins and sachet of multi-minerals would be fed to minors.

It is pertinent to note here that Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his election campaign and his inaugural speech as PM highlighted the issue of malnutrition and stunted growth among children.

Terming the issue, a top priority of his government, the PM lamented that  45 per cent of nation’s children are not getting proper nutrition.

“They are not developing properly. They are automatically left behind. What must their parents go through seeing their children in such a state?,” the PM had asked.