AS much as the Sindh government may want to wish it away, the issue of infant and child mortality in Thar continues to stay in the news. The furore is certainly justified: over 160 infants and young children have reportedly died in the district since the beginning of this year. Malnutrition is a pervasive problem here, with babies of malnourished mothers at a disadvantage from birth and susceptible to a host of health problems that have been compounded by the long-running drought. Waterborne diseases are particularly common: last Thursday alone, according to a local health officer quoted in this paper, 435 children suffering from that category of ailment were brought to six hospitals in the district. The same day, legislators from the ruling party in Sindh defended themselves in the provincial assembly against accusations of indifference and callousness with assertions, once again, that the scenario depicted in the media was grossly inaccurate and exaggerated.
This back-and-forth has continued for long enough, with one side presenting a diametrically opposite view from the other and creating confusion and obfuscation in the process. It is high time that studies are undertaken in a dispassionate, scientific manner to put at least some of the speculation to rest and point the way towards the fundamental changes that need to be made on the public health front in the district. Thar, whose human development indices are among the lowest in Pakistan, needs sustained, policy-driven investment of resources to improve the lives of its population. For many of them, even primary healthcare remains elusive: according to a recent report in this paper, a shocking 70pc of health facilities here are virtually non-functional. The drought has also further compromised food security, and the government’s ad hoc, reactive modus operandi to address this issue is no solution. However, long-term policies — on the anvil for some time — are yet to be finalised, which means that institutional mechanisms needed so desperately are nowhere on the horizon. Such lethargy is simply indefensible.
Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2016