Anaemic generation

Nutritional anaemia has been identified as the most common and prevalent type of malnourishment in Pakistan among children. This is not a recent issue; the problem is deep-rooted. In fact, evidence suggests that the nutritional situation in Pakistan has made little improvement over the decades.

Different studies and surveys have been showing a dismal picture for a very long time. The data in 1977 showed 38 percent of the population to be anaemic. The National Nutrition Survey of Pakistan conducted in 1988 showed 65 percent of the children aged 7-60 months as anaemic. The situation of micronutrient deficient anaemia shows a more distressing situation when recent surveys reflected the same picture without any significant improvement. The data identified 49.1 percent of children under five years of age having iron deficiency anaemia.

All the present figures and information highlight the presence of strong attributing factors restricting improvement of the nutrition indicators. It is imperative to have in-depth knowledge about the prevalence, distribution and causes of the disease to adopt preventive and appropriate measures for its prevention and control.

The issue of malnutrition is a serious risk to children as it poses a severe threat to their physical and mental abilities, consequently leading to compromised national productivity.

Slow progress in academic and physical activities among school-going children is always blamed on carelessness or lack of interest among. But there is a need to understand that most of the time these children are suffering from iron deficiency that causes mid inattentiveness, fatigue, exhaustion etc. The worst aspect is that a child cannot express his/her feelings and parents cannot understand the cause, resulting in children being victimised for their poor performance. Children should not be blamed; rather they should be properly monitored for any micro-nutrient deficiencies.

This issue is not restricted to school-going children; iron deficiency anaemia is among the main underlying causes of disability-adjusted life years lost among adolescents, respiratory infections and diarrhoea in 10–14-year-olds. Malnourishment has serious consequences on families, population and eventually on the country. Malnourished adolescent boys and girls cannot attain their full potential to work and perform their duties or contribute to economic activities. This results in weak human capital and low productivity.

Moreover, iron deficiency also poses serious threats to maternal conditions related to childbearing and to the wellbeing and development of their children. Hence it’s a complete cycle starting from the early ages till the reproduction of the next generation. Pakistan, with its low nutrition indicators, should address the issue on an emergency basis. It is imperative to adopt preventive measures that can breach this cycle of malnourishment.

The continuous low nutrition indicators from 1977 till 2018 show the lack of seriousness of successive governments towards this issue. It seems that no policy or programme is focused on by the government on this deficiency that is pushing the majority of the population towards morbidity. Besides incorporating malnourishment in political manifestos during the last election campaigns, no promises have been fulfilled.

Given the current stage of malnourishment the population of Pakistan is passing through, it is imperative to address nutrition concerns especially iron deficient anaemia. To grow to full potential, children need a lot of nutrients – more than at any other time in their life. The government needs to address the issue on an emergency basis and take into consideration the starting and scaling of various nutrient sensitive and specific programmes like food fortification – especially for infants and children.

Special programmes and policies should be formulated to undertake advocacy and communication activities and create an enabling environment to overcome the iron deficient anaemia within the population. The possibility of food fortification should be explored as it can lead to relatively rapid improvements in the nutritional status of a population, especially if targeted at the right age. Mexico presented a success story by addressing the issue of iron deficiency through feeding fortified food at the early development stages of infants and children. The Global Fortification Data Exchange (GFDx) also emphasised on food fortification interventions and mentioned that the majority of the world countries are on their way to overcome malnutrition by mandating intervention.

The writer is a public health consultant. She can be reached at:

fauziawaqar_28@hotmail.com