Health challenges specific to women often do not garner sufficient public attention and hence, resources or action. One such issue under malnutrition that has long-term impacts upon the health of the mother and child is anemia. Almost 80% of all instances of anemia is a result of iron deficiency, spurred by malnutrition, imbalanced diets, poverty and poor sanitation. It affects people across age groups but young children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women are the most vulnerable. The risks of abnormalities, pre-term deliveries and fetal deaths is higher in case of anemia during pregnancy.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 (2015-16), 53% women, 50.3% pregnant women and 22.7% men are anemic. Occurrence is considerably higher in rural areas than urban areas, among disadvantaged communities and women and children of households lower in the wealth quintiles. Overall, anemia levels in girls and women has stagnated from 55.3% in NFHS-3 (2005-06) to 53% in the past decade.
Government schemes like the National Nutritional Anemia Prophylaxis Program (NNAPP) since 1970, the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) and the 2013 National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI) administer iron and folic acid supplementation,however, public health experts have argued against this strategy of simply handing out iron tablets. The Rapid Survey on Children 2014 revealed that only 23.6% pregnant women consumed more than 100 iron and folic acid tablets out of the 31.2% who received them.
The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau released a report in 2017 on nutritional statuses and diets in urban India. It stated that since cereals comprised a bulk of the prevalent diets, the intake of folic acid met the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) but iron’s intake fell short. The solution for this lay in a combination of iron supplementation as well as diversified diets, which would be rich in iron, iodine, phosphorous, calcium, protein and vitamins.
Nepal is an example of a low-income and resource-poor country that has made significant progress in reducing the prevalence of anemia in women. The intensification of its maternal and neonatal micronutrient program yielded success in reducing maternal anaemia and its key preventable causes on the basis of integrated community-based delivery platforms and strengthened monitoring and logistics systems. This ensured early identification, increased awareness and high compliance via early initiation in schools, overall demand for quality care, effective implementation and expanded access/supply of improved products.
However, the 2018 Global Nutrition Report has deemed the overall global progress made in addressing anemia as “extremely slow.” No country is on track to meet their anaemia reduction targets and the number of anaemic women has actually increased since 2012. Yet, by 2022, India aims to reduce cases of anemia amongst children, adolescent girls and women of reproductive age to 33% of the NFHS-4 levels. This is in tandem with the SDG to achieve 50% reduction in anemia among women of reproductive age.
In order to achieve the national and global nutrition targets, the government, private and development sector will need to collaborate upon making interventions effective in reach and implementation. Women need to be made aware of their special nutritional needs and health-related threats, especially in for curbing anemia,in order to be able to seek timely care not limited to their pre-natal and post-natal requirements. The significance of a healthy lifestyle, rich and diversified diets and enrichment via nutritional supplements cannot be reiterated enough.
Aditi Rukhaiyar
December 13, 2018
source https://indiaoutbound.org/combating-anemia-in-women-and-girls/
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