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The infant mortality rate in Sindh has been recorded at 82 deaths per 1,000 live births, while under five mortality rate is 104 per 1,000 live births, as was explained to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah by the planning and development department at CM House on Tuesday. The presentation was on the Sindh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 2014, which was designed to provide estimates for more than 100 indicators regarding children in the province. The survey was conducted by the Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), while the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics provided the sampling frame. Other indicators showed that more than four out of 10 children who are under five years of age are underweight and 17 per cent classified as severely underweight. The CM termed the survey as a valuable piece of data to aid in the planning for the next two years and directed the chief secretary to constitute a task force to implement the recommendations. “I think despite serious problems like floods, heavy rains, and damaging of infrastructure, efforts by the government have shown some improvements in some important sectors,” he said, adding that the findings of the survey would be most helpful to focus on areas where more work was needed. The report says that immunisation is essential in reducing vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD). Overall 35 per cent of children between 12-23 months of age received all the recommended vaccinations within 12 months of age; this reflects improvement in the last few years when compared to findings of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 2012. Similarly, the report says that an improvement has been witnessed in measles vaccine coverage which is 53 per cent as compared to coverage in 2012 which was 45 per cent. The MICS report on water and sanitation says that 90 per cent of the population has access to improved sources of drinking water while it was hardly 80 per cent back in 2003. This shows an improvement of 10 per cent. The survey through water quality reports observed that three per cent of households use drinking water indicating arsenic contamination, while 39 per cent of houses use drinking water indicating E.coli contamination. The survey about reproductive health says that the total fertility rate in the province is four children per woman while it was 5.3 children per woman as per the findings of a 2003-4 survey. The report comments on maternal and newborn health and reveals that almost 80 per cent of married women receive antenatal care from a skilled provider which is vast improvement from the data collected in the last few decades; in the findings of MICS 2003-4 it was recorded at 42 per cent. The prevalence of institutional deliveries has also considerably increased from 42 per cent (DHS 2006-7) to 62 per cent as reported in the current survey of 2014. With regards to literacy and education, the report says that more than half (52.3 per cent) of young women from 15-24 years of age are literate. Only 45.2 per cent of school age children are currently attending primary education or higher education with a modest improvement from 39 per cent witnessed in MICS 2003-4. The report further reveals that for every 100 boys attending primary schools, 86 girls are in attendance. This falls to 81 girls for every 100 boys attending secondary school. The report on child protection says that 29.1 per cent of the births of children under five years of age are registered. Between the ages of 5-17, almost 26 per cent are involved in child labour and 81 per cent of children between 1-14 years of age experienced psychological aggression, physical punishment or violent behaviour as a way of discipline. The report also gave interesting revelations on access to mass media and said that 70.4 per cent of women either watch TV or read newspapers or magazines, or listen to the radio at least once a week. The report said that among women aged 15-24, almost 21 per cent used a computer during the one year period before the survey was conducted, and 13.1 per cent used a computer at least once a week during the past month. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Nisar Khuhro, Murad Ali Shah, Jam Mehtab Dahar, Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Education Fazal Pechuho, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput, Unicef Chief Field Officer Ms Nargiza Khodjaeva, as well as senior officers of P&D, health and education departments.
Keywords
infant mortality, Sindh, births, death, Sindh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, children, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, sampling frame, floods, heavy rains, damage, infrastructure
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