National

Local Production Of Iron, Folic Acid Supplements May Curb Anaemia In 15m Pakistani Girls

ISLAMABAD: The local production of Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS) in adolescent doses could prevent around 15 million adolescent girls in Pakistan from suffering from iron deficiency anemia as ensuring sustainable access to these supplements could significantly reduce costs and lessen reliance on expensive imports, according to officials and nutrition experts. Iron deficiency anaemia is the leading cause…

New Textbooks For Grade 1 To 5 To Be Delivered In Two Weeks

ISLAMABAD: The supply of newly developed textbooks for grade 1 to 5 will be completed within two weeks , says the education ministry. “These cutting-edge textbooks are designed to transform the classroom experience with interactive content, student-centeric learning activities, and a strong emphasis on developing 21st-century skills, says a press…

Federal Health Minister Urges Action As Vaccination Refusals Hindering Polio Eradication

Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has expressed serious concern over vaccine…

The State of Children in Pakistan 2025 Report

The State of Children in Pakistan 2025 is the second annual flagship…

What a Child Drinks

AT the recent Act for Nutrition Conference in Islamabad, organised by DawnMedia, where I joined a panel examining the link between poor water, sanitation and child stunting, much of the discussion was rightly about food: what children eat, how mothers are supported, and why so many families still struggle to…

Deeper Poverty

PAKISTAN’S poverty crisis is far deeper than official indicators suggest. While the government celebrates economic stabilisation, almost four in every 10 Pakistanis suffer from deprivation in health, education, and living standards. The latest UNDP figures put multidimensional poverty at 38.3pc of the population against 19.3pc for South Asia. We are…

Poverty’s Long Shadow

PAKISTAN’S contribution to rising poverty across the Middle East, North Africa and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is troubling. According to the World Bank, the country accounts for nearly half of the region’s people living in extreme poverty. Ours is a story of repeated hardship. Millions of Pakistanis have endured the pandemic,…

Before She Becomes a Bride, Let Her Be a Girl

On the International Day of the Girl, coming up on October 11 (tomorrow), we are reminded of a simple but often overlooked truth: girls’ rights cannot be separated from their right to childhood. This year’s theme, “End Child Marriage. Invest in Girls’ Rights”, asks us to look beyond the progress…

Vanished Girls

THE scourge of female disappearances in Pakistan should be a matter of shame. Institutional reforms and criminalising chauvinistic traditions remain long overdue measures. The Lahore High Court, during the hearing of a case of disappearance, was informed by Punjab’s police chief that over 500 cases of girls reported missing were…

Unsafe Online

The internet has become an ordinary part of childhood, but the protections surrounding young users remain anything but ordinary. A new Kaspersky analysis offers a revealing picture of where Pakistani children are spending their time online. During the first eight months of 2026, YouTube accounted for 31.2% of their mobile…

Where we Fail in Education

In my classroom, I encounter students who are more concerned with securing marks than acquiring knowledge. Some have learned to memorise answers, while others believe grades could be secured through influence or money. Parents, too, often measure educational success by examination scores and admission to prestigious university programmes. The result…

Polio’s Stubborn Pockets

PAKISTAN enters its latest polio campaign in a better position than it did a year ago. Only four cases have been reported so far in 2026, compared with 31 last year. That is real progress, but it would be a mistake to read too much into the decline. As vaccinators…

Better learning

IN mainstream schools in Pakistan, challenges abound. From resource constraints to technological barriers, from limited professional development opportunities to high teacher turnover, the teaching and learning landscape has been contending with several issues. Perhaps the most urgent concern is the large classes that preclude getting to know students personally. The…

Nourishing Pakistan

PAKISTAN’S nutrition crisis is not short of diagnosis. What it lacks is the machinery and political discipline to act on what is known. That was the most useful message to emerge from DawnMedia’s two-day Act for Nutrition conference in Islamabad, where experts argued that malnutrition cannot be confined to the…

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