A child, more than all other gifts that earth can offer to declining man. Brings hope with it, These beautiful words by Wordsworth ring hollow in Pakistan where according to the government’s own statistics, over one third of children are underweight, 46% of children suffer from malnutrition (stunted) and over 10% are acutely affected (wasting), half of them are anemic, and almost one-third of the children have iron deficiency anemia.

The situation of child malnutrition in Balochistan is worse as compared to other provinces where thousands of children and women die due to food insecurity. Like other social, economic and political issues, women and children malnutrition is one of the major problems in the province.

There is reports in our sister newspaper that, child malnutrition in washuk become worst and death due to malnutrition increased recently due to the negligence of Government.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency in Balochistan in view of the indicators of Global Acute Malnutrition. Balochistan has the highest level of food insecurity in the country. It is estimated that nearly more than 50 percent of households in the province are food insecure.

In Health Sector Jam Kamal led provincial government has allocated rupees 22.382 billion rupees for in 2019-20 budget but according to a budget analysis done by a Pakistan government research institute only 10% of the health budget is spent on nutrition; and of that, only 10 percent is spent by the government and 90 percent is actually disbursed by development agencies or related NGO’s.

healthcare is also one of the most critical issues of Balochistan, hundreds of people die due to rampant diseases and viruses which are spread all over the province. Diseases and viruses are rising day by day in large number killing several people.

Although the health authorities have been working to resolve these problems, the security situation along with geographical difficulties of the province and the scattered population make the issue more complex. With the WFP, the provincial government has been supporting the malnourished children, pregnant women and lactating women to prevent stunting and micronutrient deficiencies in the nine districts.

In the past, The World Bank approved US$47.95 million (US$11.71 million to Balochistan) to help the Government of Pakistan improve nutrition status of children under two years of age, and of pregnant and lactating women in targeted areas. The program will focus on improving nutrition for children and pregnant and lactating women and will be implemented in seven districts of the province over three years. However, project has not started functioning in Balochistan due to negligence and lack of interest of provincial government.

This leads to significant percentages suffering from mortality and morbidity below the age of five. Over 177,000 children die each year in the country, because they or their mother experienced malnutrition. Malnutrition reduces the growth of the baby and increases chances of it having a low birth weight, and later suffering from childhood infections and mortality.

The situation of malnutrition is abysmal in Balochistan. National Nutrition Cell conducted a survey that 49 percent of the women are suffering from malnutrition and 49 percent were affected by maternal anemia. On the other hand, 57 percent of children under 5 years were the victim of anemia and 29 percent of women had iodine deficiency in the province.

The Political commitment should be show to systematically address malnutrition and invest in nutrition interventions. This should be combined with clear focused and practical strategies to combat high levels of child malnutrition. With the 18th amendment, health has been devolved down to the provinces creating stakeholder coordination issues which combined with a general lack of importance given to nutrition from policymakers. Clear nutrition policy and national nutritional strategic plans need to be set up for addressing malnutrition in vulnerable groups. The government of Pakistan has worked in collaboration with international agencies and NGOs and implemented initiatives in sporadic fashion which overall have had little impact on indicators. There is no answer of this question that why Balochistan government is not taking a serious step to functional the program and waiting for the many children’s death.