The infant mortality rate in the Sindh province has been recorded at 82 deaths per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality rate at 104 per 1,000 live births while more than four out of 10 children under five are under weight and 17 per cent have been classified as severely underweight.
This was disclose in a presentation given by the planning and development department to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at CM House on Sindh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014 designed to provide estimates for more than 100 indicators on situation of children in the province.
The chief minister said that the reports of the survey, if conducted scientifically, were always helpful for making future planning.
Briefing the meeting, ACS (Development) Mohammad Waseem said it was one of the largest surveys in Sindh with a sample size of 19,360 households. He said that the survey conducted from January to August 2014 was part of the fifth global round of multiple indicator clusters surveys programme.
Senior minister for the finance and planning and development said the MICS survey was the unique source of information which would serve as a baseline for researchers, policy makers, planners and individuals and it would provide evidence-based data for decision making.
It may be noted that the survey was conducted by the Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with Unicef and Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) while Pakistan Bureau of Statistics provided the sampling frame.
Additional Secretary P&D BoS Shahnawaz Jaskani briefed the meeting on the survey report. The report says that in recent years the people of Sindh have experienced two record-breaking floods and rains. The children may have been disproportionately affected and Sindh MICS 2014 shows that infant mortality rate is 82 deaths per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate is 104 deaths per 1000 live births.
NUTRITION
The report about nutritional status says that more than four out of 10 children under the age of five are underweight and 17 per cent are classified as severely underweight. Almost half of the children under five years (48pc) are stunted or short for their age and one quarter (24pc) are severely stunted. The report reveals that 15 per cent of the children are wasted or thin for their height and only one per cent of them are overweight or too heavy for their height.
Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said he had some idea about these indicators and that was why he had already launched a mega programme for nutrition support all over Sindh.
CHILD HEALTH
The report about child health says that immunisation is key to reducing child health from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD). Overall 35 per cent of children of age between 12 to23 months received all the recommended vaccinations by 12 months of age which reflects improvement in the last few years, if compared to DHS 2012 findings of 29 per cent for the same indicators. Similarly, the report says that an improvement has been witnessed in measles vaccine coverage which is 53 per cent as compared to DHS 2012 coverage which was 45 per cent.
WATER AND SANITATION
The MICS report on water and sanitation says that 90 per cent of the population has access to improved sources of drinking water while it was hardly 80 per cent in the survey of 2003. This shows an improvement of 10 per cent.
The survey through water quality reports observed that three per cent of households use drinking water indicating arsenic contamination while 39 per cent of houses use drinking water indicating E coli contamination.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The survey about reproductive health says that total fertility rate in the province is four children per woman while it was 5.3 children per woman as per findings of 2003-4 survey. The report says that 29 per cent of married women are using a contraceptive method and 25 per cent are using modern methods.
MATERNAL HEALTH
The report on maternal and newborn health says that almost 80 per cent of married women receive antenatal care from a skilled provider which is almost 100 per cent improvement in last decades as compared to the findings of MICS 2003-4 when it was recorded at 42 per cent. The prevalence of institutional deliveries is also considerably increased from 42 per cent (DHS 2006-7) to 62 per cent as reported in current survey of 2014.
LITERACY AND EDUCATION
On literacy and education, the report says that more than half or 52.3 per cent young women of 15 to 24 years of age are literate. Some 45.2 per cent of school age children are currently attending primary education or higher education with a modest improvement from 39 per cent witnessed in MICS 2003-4. The report further says that for every 100 boys attending primary schools, 86 girls are also attending. This falls to 81 girls for every 100 boys attending secondary school.
CHILD PROTECTION
The report on child protection says that 29.1 per cent of the births of children age under five are registered. Some 26 per cent of the children between 5 to 17 year are involved in child labour and 81 per cent of children between 1 to 14 years experienced psychological aggression of physical punishment or violent behaviour as a way of discipline.
EARLY MARRIAGES
On early marriages, the report says that 16.3 per cent young women between 15 to 19 years are currently married. However, there seems to be a decline in the number of girls marrying before the age of 15 years. The data reflects that 17.5 per cent of women in the age group of 45 to 49 years had married before the age of 15 compared with a four per cent of women of 15 to 19 years of age group. On this, the chief minister said that the Early Marriage Law passed in 2014 had created an impact but it needed to be enforced with full vigor.
The report giving interesting revelation on ‘access to mass media & ICT’ said that overall 70.4 per cent of women either watch TV or read newspaper or magazines or listen to the radio at least once a week.
The report said 13 per cent of young women used internet during the past years. Only 8.1 of young women used the social media at least once a week during the last month. More than half of the women in the richest households used social media compared with less than one per cent in the poorest household.
The chief minister termed the survey as a most valuable data to make planning for the next two years. He approved the survey and directed the chief secretary to constitute a taskforce to implement the recommendations.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Nisar Khuhro, Murad Ali Shah, Jam Mehtab Dahar, Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Education Fazal Pechuho, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput, Unicef Chief Field Offficer Ms Nargiza Khodjeava, senior officers of P&D, health and education departments.
