Primme Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a meeting that measures needed to be taken to stop stunting. It might be deemed an intrusion into a provincial subject because stunting is a matter of children’s health, and health is a provincial subject. However, apart from the general supervisory responsibilities of the federal government, stunting is too important a matter for the federal government to ignore. Stunting is the result of malnutrition, and implies that a child has not reached the height he or she should have at the particular age. There are two other problems that must be watched for: wasting and anaemia Wasting means that the child between three and five is underweight. Anaemia means that the child suffers an iron deficiency, and may persist into adulthood, in which case anaemic mothers are less able to bear the rigours of childbearing, and may then again bear anaemic children.
The best advocates for the children are the parents. They will fight the hardest to ensure that their children are not starved, and that they attain their full heights. However, it not just a matter of looks. The problem with stunting and wasting is that they are not reversible. Whatever damage has been done is done. A stunted child has lost the skeletal growth that he should have experienced on a proper diet. A wasted child will have lost the brain growth that should have occurred if his or her diet had been adequate. It is not just the problem that these children are permanently deprived of reaching their full potential, that is created by their genetic inheritance. And it is not just they reach a lower height than their genes say they should be. They are also lewss intelligent and more susceptible to disease. It is no kindness to prevent stunting and wasting. It saves them from the fate of having to be taken care of, and makes them productive members of society.
There will be mo point in getting out-of-school children into school if they have been starved into stupidity, and inability to learn. There are a number of deficiencies in school facilities, but along with filling them, a meals programme must also be devised for immediate application, so that the national loss of stunting is ended sooner than later. It is argued by some that a large and young population is actually an advantage. That is only true if it is able to learn, and has not had its faculties stunted by malnutrition.
