Sindh Neonatal Mortality Rate Declines By 30%: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

KARACHI: "The Neonatal Mortality Rate in Sindh has decreased by more than 30 per cent in Sindh. While infant mortality rate went down by 19 per cent and under-five mortality rate by 17 per cent", stated Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), while talking to the media after inaugurating the 'Mother and Child Support Programme' launched by the Social Protection Strategy Unit.

This speaks louder of the provincial government's pragmatic and result-oriented healthcare policies. Therefore we are taking other steps to launch the Mother & Child Support Programme to register pregnant mothers at health facilities close to their homes and provide them with cash support for each scheduled visit, including institutional delivery.

The programme was attended by Murad Ali Shah, the Chief Minister of Sindh Syed, provincial ministers, advisors, Special Assistants and senior officers of different departments.

Bilawal Bhutto said that according to the Demographic and Health Survey conducted by USAID and UKAID for the years 2013-18, Neonatal Mortality has decreased by 19 per cent in Punjab, increased by two per cent in KPK and decreased by 30 per cent in Sindh.  

Similarly, the infant mortality rate decreased by 17 per cent in Punjab and 19 per cent in Sindh and nine per cent in KP. The under-5 mortality rate has decreased 19 per cent in Punjab, 17 per cent in Sindh, and nine per cent in KPK.  Chairman PPP said that it had been the tradition of the Pakistan People’s Party that it has always launched pro-poor policies with the objective steer the people out of poverty.

"It was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali who had taken away lands from Jagirdars and gave [them] to the peasants," he said and added that Shaheed Mohterma Benazir Bhutto had launched a lady health worker programme. He said that the Lady Health Worker programme was criticised at the initial stage, but later it earned international acclamation as was earned by Benazir Income Support Programme. He added that BISP was a revolutionary program, and under its banner ‘Waseelae Haq, Waseelae Rozgar and Waseelae Taleem’ were launched, which had reached 1.3 million people.

He said that the PPP government had also launched interest-free loans, and their repayment ratio was recorded at 99 per cent.

Speaking on occasion, Syed Murad Ali Shah, the Chief Minister of Sindh, said that his government had made significant advances in improving the outreach and quality of primary health services aimed at maternal, newborn, and child health.  He added that these WHO-recommended services, such as ante-natal check-ups, safe delivery, postnatal care, child growth monitoring and immunisation, were available free of cost at public health facilities throughout the province. "This has resulted in improvements in key indicators such as institutional deliveries as a proportion of all rural births from 46 per cent to 62 per cent in the last eight years," he disclosed. Mr Shah said that there was still much further to go.

"Many women from low-income families in remote rural communities cannot make use of existing public health services. This is due to the loss of income from taking time off work and travel costs," The CM continued, adding that his government was launching the Mother and Child Support Programme to help women overcome economic barriers to making use of these essential services.

"This is the first programme which forms part of a comprehensive provincial social protection strategy being rolled out by the Sindh government in the coming months," he announced.

According to the CM, the Mother and Child Support Programme registers pregnant mothers at health facilities close to their homes and cash support for each scheduled visit, including institutional delivery.

"The women are supported by Rs 1,000 at each scheduled antenatal, postnatal and child healthcare visits, Rs 4,000 for institutional or healthcare facility-based delivery and Rs2,000 for birth registration with NADRA. The programme aimed to help mothers and children avail themselves of WHO-recommended services." he clarified.

According to the chief minister, through the entire period covering the critical first 1,000 days starting from conception up to the child's second birthday, each beneficiary will get Rs 20,000 throughout the continuum of care for the first 1,000 days. As a pilot intervention, the chief minister said that the programme had been launched in two UCs of districts, Tharparkar and Umerkot, each.

"It is being scaled up in the two Talukas of the intervention districts and will be subsequently scaled up to the entire districts in the next three months," he said.

Mr Murad added the initiative would be further expanded to cover the entire province within the next two years. At its peak, the programme aims to have over one million active beneficiaries and targets rapid improvements in the health of mothers and children.

The CM announced to make the Social Protection Unit a full-fledged department that would implement the PPP-election manifesto.

Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, the Minister of Health and Population Welfare in Sindh, and Haris Gazdar, the Special Assistant to the Chief Minister, also spoke on occasion.