Highest child malnutrition rate among slum kids

The highest rate of malnutrition has been found among children living in the slums of the country, revealed the Bangladesh Urban Health Survey 2013 report yesterday.
Fifty percent of the slum children below five years are stunted, whereas the percentage stands at 33 in non-slum areas. The rates were 57 and 37 respectively in a similar survey conducted in 2006.
Similarly, 43 percent of the urban children are underweight while in non-slum areas the rate is 26 percent and in sub-urban areas it is 30 percent.
According to an earlier study, rate of stunting of the under-five children across the country was 40 percent.
The preliminary findings of the survey were presented at a dissemination programme at the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday.
The National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT), US-based MEASURE Evaluation and icddr,b conducted it  with financial support of USAID and UKaid.   
For the survey, the urban areas were divided into three categories -- slums, non-slums and other urban areas (semi-urban).
The survey looked at the features of population and households, migration, availability of health services, fertility, family planning, maternal and child health and nutrition, health service utilisation and outcomes.
“Bangladesh aims to reduce prevalence of stunting among young children to 38 percent by 2016. This is well achieved in areas other than the slums,” said iccddr,b scientist PK Streatfield.
Also, in slums the under-five mortality rate is 57 and infant mortality rate is 49 per 1,000 births, and it is a decline by 30 and 22 percent respectively compared to that of 2006.
Terming malnutrition in the urban slums a big concern, Streatfield said causes of higher rate of stunting and child mortality in the slums are not very clear, but infections due to lack of hygiene and sanitation might have a strong role. Further reductions in child mortality might be hindered by rapid growth of high-risk slums, he added.
The survey also found that 70 percent couples in the slums use contraceptives, which is 65 percent in the non-slum areas. Also, total fertility rate in the urban areas has now come down below 2.0, which means each woman has less than two children. In 2006, the rate was 2.5 in urban slums, while 1.9 in non-slums.
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim said effective programmes have to be undertaken to address the inequality in health indicators between the slum and non-slum areas.
The vulnerable population, mainly the poor urban women and children, must be included in all health services to improve their health status, said US Ambassador Dan W Mozena.