New India can’t be vitamin deficient- The New Indian Categorical

Over 67% of children under five in India are anemic. That corresponds to about seven out of ten children who suffer from iron deficiency. The results of Phase 2 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) show the dangerous demographic pattern for a country poised to become a global economic superpower. Let’s look at pregnant women in the 15-49 age group and the number is 52.2%. For non-pregnant women, the number is higher at 57.2%. Speaking of the economic burden of anemia, the loss it causes is likely as much as the country’s health budget.

As early as the 1970s, India launched the National Nutritional Anemia Prophylaxis Program (NNAPP) to combat the deficiency. In 2019 the Anemia Mukt Bharat campaign was launched. Two years later and after Covid-19, the numbers have not only skyrocketed, but scary in some states. Assam’s anemia scenario for children aged 6 to 59 months is a whopping 68.4% in NFHS-5, a 32% increase since NFHS-4. Chhattisgarh’s numbers rose to 67.2%, an increase of 25.6%. In Odisha, where malnutrition remains acute, the numbers of anemia are just as worrying – rising from 44.6% in 2015-16 to 64.2%. Anemia is a major contributor to disability in children and to the leading cause of death in newborns and mothers. In addition, the NFHS-5 shows that the parameters stunting, wasting and underweight did not improve much compared to the last survey.

All of this requires a realignment of food planning for the country as well as for individual states where the situation remains dire. A change in nutrition plans, the use of sustainable local solutions and a further strengthening of the surveillance and surveillance systems would be the order of the day. There should also be regional planning for nutritional programs. It remains to find out whether the pandemic has blocked access to food for children and women, who are largely dependent on supplementary nutrition programs, and to revise the planning. The dream of a New India cannot be built on large populations of children and mothers without adequate nutrition.