ISLAMABAD: The National Survey 2018 report on malnutrition in Pakistan reveals that 13% of children between the ages of two and five in the country suffer from some form of ‘functional disability’.

This disability can be mental or physical and can have many degrees of severity. One in eight adolescents and one in five boys of the same age suffer from malnutrition and weight loss, the report said.

Half of the girls in Pakistan who reach puberty are anemic, while the triple burden of malnutrition in women of childbearing age is also a big question mark.

In Pakistan, 14% of women of childbearing age are malnourished, up from 18% in the 2011 National Nutrition Survey (NNS). That’s an improvement of four percent after seven years.

However, the rate of obesity and overweight due to indiscriminate eating, which was 28% in 2011, has now reached 38%.

Similarly, two out of ten children under the age of five suffer from vesting. That is, some of the limbs of these children, ie hands, feet, etc., do not grow properly.

On the occasion, Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, said that the government was working hard to reduce food insecurity in the country.

That is why public malnutrition has been included in the plan. At the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health is working on co-operation and policy between various agencies to address the food crisis in the country.