TRACKING ANEMIA AND ITS DETERMINANTS FROM 2006 TO 2016 IN INDIA: INSIGHTS FROM THE NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY-4

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India accounts for the highest burden of anemia globally. In the last fifty years, despite substantial programmatic efforts, progress has been slow throughout the lifecycle including among adolescent girls (15-19 years), women of reproductive age (15-49 years) (WRA), pregnant women, and children (6-59 months), and continues to be a major public health problem. There has been limited progress in anemia reduction between 2006 and 2016 across India, and it has not been uniform across the states and among the districts.

India’s policy framework for eliminating anemia has identified a set of interventions to address anemia, including delayed cord clamping, iron and folic acid supplementation, deworming, intense behaviour change communication for promoting  consumption of iron-rich foods and appropriate infant and young child feeding practices, testing and treating anemia among school-going adolescents and pregnant women, use of iron-fortified foods in public health facilities, and testing and treating malaria in endemic pockets.

India’s recently launched Anemia Mukt Bharat initiative lends focus on women of reproductive age (20-49 years), who will start receiving weekly iron-folic acid supplementation, which supports our finding on the need to attend to this population segment. In addition, Government of India has mandated the fortification of salt with iodine and iron, and wheat flour with iron, folic acid and Vitamin B-12. The social safety-net programs in the country including the public distribution system, mid-day meal scheme, and the integrated child development services program are now mandated to use these fortified products with an intent to benefit the vulnerable population in the society.

This Data Note describes the prevalence of anemia and its determinants, and coverage of a set of key interventions targeted at improving anemia. The findings here are based on available data from the National Family Health Surveys in 2005-2006 and 2015-2016. For detailed information, please download this Data Note on "Tracking anemia and its determinants from 2006 to 2016 in India: Insights from the National Family Health Survey-4".