Pakistan has reduced poverty drastically by making considerable progress in poverty alleviation. Still, there is much to be done and 24 % of Pakistanis living below the poverty line is still a major problem. Malnutrition is still a huge issue and every 9th child is suffering from poor diets and stunted growth under the age of 5 years.
The lack of a proper diet in children in the country is leading to several severe health problems. On the other hand, the intake of ready-made products has become excessive. Parents prefer feeding their children with ready-made food without analyzing the nutrients in it. Such food either make the child obese or too weak to fight diseases. Children from the day they born to the age of 19 grow the most and their body build is completed. If healthy food or enough food is not provided in the phase of their growing age, they may have stunted physical and mental growth and they are more likely to contract diseases in their adult age.
Another reason behind kids’ poor health and malnutrition, is the mother’s intake of unhealthy food in her pregnancy. No mother consumes healthy food these days. Mothers prefer to eat everything they like without considering their pregnancy. Whatever the mother consumes, the child in her belly has it. It is the reason why pre-mature and weak children are born. They are under-weight and it leads the children towards weak learning, poor brain development, risk of increased infections and low immunity against many diseases. Many diseases at later stages mean lower life expectancy.
The world is progressing each minute which means technological advancements are happening and they are reshaping us culturally and socially. But poor health is still the problem that persists and even advanced developed countries have not eradicated the issue completely. Life expectancy is getting lower and the children’s mortality rate is higher. Every year millions of children die in Pakistan and the big reason behind these deaths is the poor diet. It has been reported that worldwide, 149 million children are too short in height of their actual age, 50 million people are too thin of their age and another effect of improper diet is that round 40 million people are either highly obese or overweight.
Children with poor diet at a very early age leads them to face many deficiencies in their elderly age. Only 42 percent of children are given mother’s milk and the rest of them are fed on powdered or packaged milk and later they are fed instant food that ultimately causes many health problems as the child grows and the complications in the child start getting apparent. Pakistani school-going adolescents consume high quantities of fast food with carbonates and sugar through soft drinks every day and they also cause many long-lasting diseases.
Pakistani government has launched many poverty alleviation programs like BISP and Ehsaas programs but they are not sufficient and they need to increase the efforts to address the stunted growth and poor diets issues because these children are the future of Pakistan and only a healthy person can progress and achieve his goals in life.
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