Islamabad-The government will launch today Ehsaas Nash-o-Numa programmeme which will help to address the issue of stunted growth faced by 40 per cent Pakistani children. Prime Minister Imran Khan would formally launch the ‘Ehsaas Nash-o-Numa’ programmeme along with her by visiting the Ehsaas Nash-o-Numa Center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber tribal district, said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Sania Nishtar while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.
Talking about the programmeme, she said that the programmeme will cost Rs8.5 billion and it will be for three years. A total of 221000 beneficiaries will be registered under the programmeme, she added. The programmeme is fully funded by the government of Pakistan and it is being implemented with the support of World Food programme (WFP). Ehsaas Nash-o-Numa programme is being launched to prevent stunting due to malnutrition in children under the age of two years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. She said around 40 per cent of children in Pakistan suffered from stunting due to malnutrition and other reasons. Dr Nishtar said that the highest incidence of stunting disease in Pakistan in terms of provinces and regions was in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh.
She said that no serious effort made in the past to address the serious issue of stunting and this area remained unaddressed which caused more than 40% stunting in children. Ehsaas developed a new nutrition conditional cash transfer programmeme called “Ehsaas Nashonuma”. Ehsaas Nashonuma aims to address stunting among pregnant women and their children less than 2 years of age through conditional cash transfers of Rs1500 per quarter per PLW for boy child and Rs2,000 per quarter per girl child of Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries linked with consumption of specialized nutritious Food, immunisation and attendance of health awareness sessions on quarterly basis. Under the programme special healthy food sachet will also be provided to the beneficiaries. In addition the beneficiaries will be paid Rs 500 transportation cost.
