Clutching their hungry babies, a group of mothers mix a semolina dish under the guidance of a teacher, an attempt to curb malnutrition which affects nearly one in two children in Pakistan’s south.Despite Sindh province being home to the mega port city of Karachi, the financial centre of the country that sprawls along the Arabian coastline, children in rural areas just a few hours away face stark levels of wasting and stunting. In the arid village of Sujawal, lethargic children with prominent bones wilt in the searing heat as social workers educate mothers on nutrient-rich ingredients and dispel myths around food. “Before, we only gave our children potatoes because they were always available at home,” said Shahnaz, 25, who has radically changed the diet of her six children, weak and frequently sick, after a year of classes.Now, convinced that children should eat a varied diet, she has introduced affordable ingredients such as lentils and semolina into her cooking, lifting her daughter out of malnutrition. In impoverished rural Sindh province, 48 percent of children under five suffer from malnutrition and 20 percent from its most severe form, wasting, according to the latest national survey on the issue conducted in 2018. In this class, Azma, a social worker, shows mothers how to cook with semolina — easily available in the market. “Semolina is cheap — for 50 rupees it can last a week if you’re feeding one to two spoonfuls daily to a six-month-old child,” she explained to AFP. In Sindh, a province of 55 million people where contraception remains taboo and large families are the norm, 3,500 mothers have benefited from cooking classes developed by UNICEF. Like many mothers in the area, Kulsoom, 23 and pregnant with her sixth child, all born prematurely and underweight, once only fed her children pieces of fried flatbread.”One of my children died, and my youngest is extremely weak, so I was advised to take these classes,” said Kulsoom, who goes by only one name, like most women in her district. – No spices -Parents are recommended to feed babies solid foods from about six months old, but in rural Sindh this often means adult leftovers, too spicy for young stomachs.”The main problem is the lack of dietary diversity,” says Mazhar Iqbal, a nutritionist for UNICEF.In Pakistan, 38 percent of children eat only two or fewer of the eight food categories recommended by UNICEF.Meat is saved for special occasions, yet inexpensive protein alternatives exist such as chicken offal, boiled bones, lentils and beans. As for fruit and vegetables, they are usually fried, losing their nutrients. Bakhtawar Kareem joined the programme after her child died of anaemia. “I have no money. Sometimes we eat, sometimes we don’t,” she lamented, scanning the swollen belly of her one-year-old daughter, who has only sparse clumps of hair. Like 72 percent of children in the village, her daughter has stunting, well above the average rate in Pakistan of 42 percent — one of the highest in the world. Stunting is most closely associated with brain development and physical growth, and can have long-term physical and mental impacts. Vulnerable to a lack of clean water and sanitation which contributes to malnutrition, children often also suffer from dengue fever or malaria, from vomiting, diarrhoea, or difficulty urinating, and have abnormally swollen bellies. – Women eat leftovers -But the vicious cycle of malnutrition begins with the mothers. “With early marriages and repeated pregnancies, more than 45 percent of women in Sindh are anaemic,” said the nutritionist. “This increases the risk of having low birth weight babies, who are more likely to suffer from malnutrition.” In Sujawal, where only a quarter of the population can read and write, myths about food also deprive women of vital nutrients. Farrah Naz, the head of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Pakistan, regularly has to repeat that eggs and dried fruits do not cause women to bleed more during their periods. Cultural norms around women serving meals to men first and eating the leftovers — despite the physical work they carry out in the fields — also contributes to poor health. “And when food runs out, it’s their rations that are cut first.” 

For more than a century, the fate of the dazzling Darya-e-Noor diamond has been sealed inside a bank vault — a mystery that haunts Khawaja Naim Murad, descendant of the former princes, or Nawabs, of Dhaka.Locked away in 1908, were the family’s heirlooms lost during the violence at the end of British rule in 1947?Did they survive Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 and the string of coups that followed, or are they still safe, dusty but untouched?Many suspect the jewels are long gone, and officials at the state-run bank hesitate to simply open the vault, fearing they’d carry the cost if it is empty.But the cash-strapped South Asian government have now ordered a committee unseal the vault — and Murad clings to hope.”This is not a fairytale,” said Murad, 55, recounting a story passed down from his father about the giant diamond dubbed the “River of Light”, the centrepiece rock of glittering armband.”The diamond was rectangular in shape and surrounded by more than half a dozen smaller diamonds,” Murad told AFP.It was part of a trove of 108 treasures. According to original court documents, they include a gold-and-silver sword encrusted with diamonds, a bejewelled fez with cascading pearls, and a fabulous star brooch once owned by a French empress.- History and myth -The nawab’s riverside pink palace of Ahsan Manzil is now a government museum.Murad, a former popular film star, lives in a sprawling villa in a wealthy Dhaka suburb.He flourished a sheaf of documents, including a family book with detailed paintings of the treasures.”It is one of the most famous diamonds in the world, and its history is closely associated with that of the Koh-i-Noor,” the book reports, referring to the shining centrepiece of Britain’s crown jewels — a gem also claimed by Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan.”It is absolutely perfect in lustre.”Another diamond of the same name, the pink-hued Daria-i-Noor, is in Tehran as part of Iran’s former royal jewels.Murad maintains that the family’s diamond, too, was once owned by Persia’s shahs, then worn by Sikh warrior-leader Ranjit Singh in 19th-century Punjab. It was later seized by the British and eventually acquired by his ancestors.But fortunes shifted. In 1908, the then-nawab — Murad’s great-grandfather — faced financial trouble.Sir Salimullah Bahadur borrowed from British colonial powers — mortgaging his vast Dhaka estates and placing the treasures in a vault as collateral.That was their last confirmed sighting. Since then, myth and history merge.Murad believes his uncle saw the jewels in the bank in the 1980s, but bank officials say they do not know if the vault has ever been opened.Chairman of the Bangladesh’s Land Reforms Board, AJM Salahuddin Nagri, says the government body inherited custody of the trove, held in a state-owned bank.”But I haven’t seen any of the jewels yet,” he told AFP.- ‘Vault is sealed’ -The 1908 court papers did not specify the diamond’s carat weight but valued it at 500,000 rupees — part of a hoard worth 1.8 million rupees.By today’s conversion, that equals roughly $13 million, though experts say the market value of such rare and large jewels has since sometimes soared many times higher.Today’s guardian, Shawkat Ali Khan, managing director of Sonali Bank, said the safe remains shut.”The vault is sealed,” Khan said. “Many years back, an inspection team came to check on the jewels, but they never really opened it — they just opened the gate that held the vault.”He is keen for the vault to be opened at last, though no date yet has been given.”I am excited,” he said with a brief smile.The family hope to discover if any of the century-old debt remains, and whether they could reclaim the jewels.Murad dreams of diamonds, but says his real wish is to simply see the treasure for himself.”We believe that if anyone dies in debt, his soul never finds peace,” he said.