In Swat, 15-year-old Hania has spent the last 10 months learning about nutrition, balanced diets and almost everything she needs to know about anaemia.

She can tell you which foods inhibit iron absorption — tea, coffee and milk. She knows that Vitamin C helps. She has made fruit plates in class, designed posters and role-played conversations with imaginary mothers, fathers and brothers. She takes her weekly iron-folic acid (WIFA) tablet every Tuesday in school, in front of her teacher, with a cup of water ready for her.

What happens on Wednesday is another story.

At home, her father says he hasn’t given permission. Her brothers have heard a rumour on social media that the supplements are a conspiracy. Her grandmother warns that having them could affect her fertility.

But there is so much more Hania has learnt from her teacher about seasonal fruits that are locally available and rich in iron. Faced with opposition, Hania chooses silence. The problem is not Hania’s knowledge. It is that nutrition programmes assume she has the power to act on it.

A pilot nutrition programme in schools found that adolescent girls quickly learned about healthy diets and iron supplements. What it also revealed was that family and household routines — not classrooms — often determine whether those lessons sustain

A pilot nutrition programme in schools found that adolescent girls quickly learned about healthy diets and iron supplements. What it also revealed was that family and household routines — not classrooms — often determine whether those lessons sustain

THE PROBLEMS OF NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY

Adolescent nutrition interventions in Pakistan are designed as if the girl is a change agent. She isn’t. The household, not the school, is the actual unit of behaviour change. Until programmes are redesigned around that reality, results will keep evaporating at the front door.

The scale of what’s at stake is not in dispute.

According to the 2019 Global Nutrition Report, 41 percent of women of reproductive age in Pakistan suffer from anaemia — among the highest rates in the world for........

© Dawn (Magazines)