Over 16 percent Pakistani households suffer moderate to severe food insecurity — survey 

ISLAMABAD: Over 16 percent households in Pakistan experience “moderate or severe” food insecurity, Pakistan’s Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey 2019-20 said in a report published this month and reported by local media on Thursday.
This is the seventh report of the survey, based on data from 195,000 households collected between October 2019 to March 2020.
One section of the survey evaluated “how many households suffer due to food insecurity by evaluating in terms of money, fill of nutrition food, hunger in last 12 months.”
The survey report said Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan witnessed the highest level of moderate or severe food insecurity at 29.84 percent, Sindh at 18.45 percent, Punjab at 15.16 percent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 12.75 percent.
District-wise data in the survey showed the highest level of moderate or severe food insecurity was recorded at 48.8 percent in Barkhan in Balochistan and the lowest at 4.59 percent in Gwadar, Balochistan. In Sindh, the highest level was recorded at 34.04 percent in Kashmore and the lowest at 7.66 percent in Khairpur.
In Punjab, the highest level of moderate or severe food insecurity was in Kasur at 28.81 percent and the lowest at 4.18 percent in Okara. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the highest level was in Tank at 32.43 percent and the lowest at 3.94 percent in Shangla.
The survey reveals that across Pakistan, the percentage of children aged 10 years and older who had ever attended school was 60 percent in 2019-20, compared to 62 percent in 2014-15. Islamabad remained at the top of the list at 85 percent.
“While great strides have been made in improving literacy and participation rates, the education system remains largely elitist with access to the best educational opportunities available only to the more affluent or well-connected,” the report read.