Around 33.2 percent children were underweight and 16.3 percent were severely underweight in the age groups 0-59 months in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA).
According to the report ‘The State of Children in Pakistan’, launched by the Children Complaint Office (CCO), nutritional indicators in FATA varied significantly by gender.
Prevalence of malnutrition was much higher in males at 36.8 percent, as compared to 29.5 percent in females.
In rural areas, 33.7 percent children were underweight and 6.8 percent were severely undernourished. This exceeded similar indicators in urban areas, where 25.3 percent were underweight and 3.4 percent severely undernourished. The highest rate of moderate underweight of 42.5 percent was recorded in South Waziristan, followed by Tank at 41.9 percent. The lowest rate was found in Bajaur Agency (26.8 percent).
The severely-underweight rate was recorded to be highest in Mohmand Agency (21.3 percent) and the lowest in Bajaur Agency (11.5 percent).
According to findings of the National Nutrition Survey 2011, conducted by the Health Department, 15.1 percent children suffered from acute malnutrition compared to 14.1 percent in 2001, while 43.6 percent of children had mild nutrition, showing an increase of 40 percent reported during the last survey.
This has made children vulnerable to diarrhoea, dysentery, anaemia, pneumonia, and respiratory tract infections. The findings mentioned that 62.5 percent children and 52 percent pregnant women suffered from severe anaemia. According to the report, there were 41 hospitals, 190 dispensaries, five rural health clinics, six TB clinics, 499 community health centres, five leprosy centres and 3 sub-health centres in FATA. In the absence of roads, people had to resort to traditional method of treatment or were at the mercy of quacks.
Household salt was tested for iodine which showed that only 5 percent households in (FATA) consumed iodised salt (15+ PPM) and 12.7 percent families consumed insufficiently iodised salt with less than 15 PPM.
Consumption of iodised salt was higher in urban areas, while it was only 4.7 percent in rural areas.
Talking to APP, an official in CCO said, “It was unfortunate that iodised salt which can prevent serious health issues among children is not easily available and salt processors are not bound by law to ensure that salt is iodised.”
The percentage of households using iodised salt was highest in Orakzai Agency.
