Long way to go to make state ‘anaemia-mukt’

Kuldeep Chauhan 

The fact that 53.4 per cent women in the age group of 19 and 49 years are anaemic in the state has shattered the hopes of making it as an “anaemia-mukt pradesh”. The incidence of anaemia in the state is higher than the national average of 51 per cent. Health experts attribute this to change in food habits. What concern more is that 83.2 women in tribal Lahaul-Spiti and 80.8 per cent in Kinnaur suffer from anaemia. In Shimla district, the largest apple producer in the state, the staggering 71.7 per cent women are anaemic, the highest among non-tribal districts, reveals a survey on anaemia done by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2015-16. 

The survey has not ascertained the reasons for the higher incidence of anaemia among the women of Himachal, but experts cite “iron deficiency, high blood loss during menstruation, invasion of junk food in place of iron-rich traditional foods in now prosperous tribal districts and Shimla district” as the main reasons behind this trend. Not only this, what worries the Health Department more is that over 50 per cent adolescent girls in 10 to 19-year age group in public and government schools in the capital city were also found to be anaemic in a survey done in 2012-13 by the Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC). 

“The main reasons for high incidence of anaemia in adolescent girls in the city are: there is a higher incidence of worm-infestation among girls, they also eat a lot of junk and fast food that results in malnutrition and iron deficiency,” said Dr Anmol Gupta, head, community medicine, IGMC. 

Health experts said the high incidence of anaemia among tribal women is because “they have almost given up producing and eating iron-rich traditional food such as buckwheat and milk of local cows called ‘churus’ and yak. 

“Now, they have jersey cows and eat rice and wheat. Cold drinks and junk foods are a household name in tribal areas,” said a writer based in the tribal district of Lahaul. 

“In Shimla district, people have stopped producing and eating traditional iron and vitamin-rich food like amaranth (chaulai), ‘koda’, maize and milk of pahari cows,” said Dr OP Bhuraita, director, State Resource Centre (SRC) Shimla, an NGO. “We need to ascertain other reasons also to explain the higher incidence of anaemia in Shimla district, on which the present survey is silent,” he said. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) and de-worming programmes to meet the challenge of high prevalence and incidence of anaemia among adolescent, but its results remain elusive so far. 

District-wise data

• Lahaul-Spiti 83.2 per cent 
• Kinnaur 80.8 per cent 
• Shimla 71.7 per cent 
• Solan 66.7 per cent 
• Kullu 62.3 per cent 
• Kangra 61.4 per cents 
• Chamba 50.6 per cent 
• Una 47.5 per cent 
• Sirmaur 45.4 per cent 
• Bilaspur 39.4 per cent 
• Mandi 37.0 per cent 
• Hamirpur 36.0 per cent 

(Source: NFHS-4 2015-16)