SHIKARPUR: Sindh has the highest mortality rate among children below five years of age in the country because of increasing malnutrition in rural areas, particularly in Shikarpur, according to a survey report prepared by an NGO.

Representatives of NGOs said at a seminar on the state of children and maternal health in Pakistan organised by the Save the Children Fund in collaboration with a local NGO at the press club here on Monday that thousands of children under the age of five years were dying annually of malnutrition across Pakistan while Global Acute Malnutrition rate had reached 17 per cent in Sindh.

They said that according to the nutrition survey report, the mortality rate among children was the highest in Sindh as compared to other provinces because the poor families could not afford to feed their children hygienic and nutritious food.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014