Lahore    -  Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has announced health survey will be conducted in all government educational institutions across the province. She was speaking at the launch of National Nutrition Survey 2018 at a hotel on Friday.

Conducted by the Agha Khan University in collaboration with the health ministry with the support of Unicef Pakistan and the Department for International Development (DFID), the study assesses the nutrition status of 40,452 households across Punjab.

Children under-five, adolescent girls and boys were the primary focus. Thanking Unicef for assisting the government, the minister said the study would help healthcare managers to address nutrition issues.

According to survey, four in 10 children under five are stunted, two out of 10 children under five suffer wasting and 23.5 percent of children under five were underweight while 9.9 percent were overweight.

Reiterating the ruling PTI’s resolve to better healthcare facilities, Dr Yasmin said the government of most populous province under CM Usman Buzdar has been working hard for better service delivery. She listed her government’s steps to better healthcare service delivery, saying: “We are going to set up five state-of-the-art child and mother hospitals. The government under PM Imran Khan put health sector on the top of priority list.  Shortage of doctors has been overcome in all the basic health centres of Punjab.”  “One in eight adolescent girls and two in eight adolescent boys are underweight while 41 percent of the adolescent girls are anaemic,” the survey said.

“All hospitals have been told to ensure safety of mother and child as provision of best healthcare facilities for mother and child is a must for a healthy generation.  She laid stress on mother feed to cope with nutrition challenges being faced by children.

The findings of the survey were shared by Prof Dr. Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Founding Director of Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Agha Khan University.

Murad Raas, Minister for Education, Habibur Rahman Gilani, Chairman P&D Zahid Akhtar Zaman Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, Dr Eric Alain Ategbo, Chief of Nutrition Unicef Pakistan, Dr Baseer khan Achakzai, Director Nutrition and Dr Sohail Saqlain, Member Health Nutrition and Population, P&D Board were present on the occasion. Dr Sohail Saqlain said, “Sustainable Development Goal 2 - ‘Zero Hunger’ specifically addresses the need to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. It can only be achieved if no child, woman or man is left behind - regardless of how difficult and challenging the circumstances.”

He said that The survey results are key for shaping the nutrition and healthcare policy landscape of the province of Punjab. Eric Alainsaid said Unicef along with its UN partners is committed to supporting and will continue working with the government of Sindh in its efforts to reduce prevalence of all forms of malnutrition among vulnerable groups in the province.