479 under-five kids died in Tharparkar in past three years, SHC told

Court dissatisfied with govt report, says children still dying due to lack of health facilities

As many as 479 children under the age of five died in Tharparkar in the past three years due to low birthweight, birth asphyxia, pneumonia, neonatal sepsis and other infections, the district’s deputy commissioner told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

The court was hearing a petition regarding the state of affairs in Tharparkar relating to dying of children, unjust distribution of wheat and unavailability of water as well as health and education facilities.

The petitioners said that most areas of the district – including Mithi, Chachro Diplo, Islamkot and Nagarparkar – were braving a famine-like situation that had killed several people, majority of whom were malnourished children.

They referred to recent media reports that suggested a deadly famine had hit Tharparkar and attributed the increasing deaths to malnutrition. They said the health facilities in the district lacked adequate quantities of medicines and equipment to deal with the issue.

Filing a report in the SHC, the Tharparkar DC claimed that deaths of under-five children due to malnutrition had declined between 2014 and 2017, except due to neonatal sepsis.

He said that in majority of the cases, the age of the deceased children was under a month and they had low birthweight, not to mention preterm deliveries. He added that early marriage, less access to family planning services, premature birth and low birthweight were major contributing factors to children’s deaths.

The DC said shortage of medicines at hospitals and unavailability of medical staff were also major problems faced by the district hospitals. He claimed that the health department was working tirelessly to prevent children’s deaths, and that medical facilities had been provided to the district hospitals.

He told the court that the government had also taken steps for providing potable water to the people through reverse-osmosis plants, canal water, pipelines and small dams in Nagarparkar and other areas; besides, wheat bags were distributed to drought-affected families of Tharparkar.

The provincial law officer said the government was taking measures to facilitate Tharparkar’s people, adding that proper arrangements had been made to provide food, water, medicine and health facilities to them.

The court expressed dissatisfaction over the government report and observed that children were still dying due to non-provision of basic health facilities. The SHC directed the health and food secretaries to submit their reports with regard to appointment of doctors at hospitals as well as distribution of wheat to the affected families in Tharparkar.