At 55%, "developed" Gujarat has more anemic women than national average; situation worse among children

A new Government of India interactive atlas has revealed that Gujarat’s 54.9% of women in the age group 14-49 are anemic as against the national average of 53%. Out of 21 major Indian states, the data show, 14 states have a lower percentage of anemic women than that of Gujarat.
The seven states where the percentage of women is more anemic than Gujarat are: Jharkhand 65.2%, West Bengal 63.2%, Haryana 62.7%, Bihar 60.3%, Andhra Pradesh 60%, Telangana 56.7%, and Tamil Nadu 55.1%. All data are for 2015-16.
Things are no better with pregnant women. The atlas shows that Gujarat’s 51.3% pregnant women are anemic, as against the national average of 50.3 per cent, with as many as 15 major states out of 21 having lesser percentage of anemic pregnant women.

The six states with a higher percentage of anemic pregnant women are – Jharkhand 62.6%, followed by Bihar 58.3%, Haryana 55%, West Bengal 53.6%, and Andhra Pradesh 52.9%.
The atlas reveals a major gender gap, too, with just about 21.7% of men found to be anemic. This is against the national average of 22.7%.
It also shows rural-urban divide, with 57.7% rural women as against 51.6% urban women anemic in Gujarat. Things are no different for men: Here, 25% rural men and 17.8% urban men are found to be anemic.
The further atlas finds the least percentage of anemic women is in Kerala, 34.2%. Interestingly, Kerala has a still lower percentage of anemic pregnant women, 22.6%, lower than any other major state of India.

A higher percentage of anemic pregnant women would have its consequences on infants. The atlas shows that 62.6% of children in the age group 6 to 59 months are anemic in Gujarat, which is worse than all major 21 states but five – Haryana 71.1%, Jharkhand 69.9%, Madhya Pradesh 68.9%, Bihar 63.5%, and Uttar Pradesh 63.3%.
Based on official data, the atlas has been developed by the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). It is claimed to be India’s first online nutrition atlas. NIN operates under the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Among the sources it has banked upon are data from the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, the National Family Health Survey, the World Health Organisation and other public databases. It provides not just state-wise but also district-wise data.

Notably, the all-tribal district of Dangs in Gujarat has the highest percentage of anemic women, 72.3%, while Surat, perhaps the most urban district of Gujarat, has the least percentage of anemic women, 39%.
Interestingly, however, the all-tribal district of Dahod has 56.3% of anemic women, considerably lower Gandhinagar district (which as the state capital) 65.8%, and Ahmedabad district, the state’s commercial capital, 62.9%.
As for children in the age group 6 to 59 months, while the highest percentage of anemic children are found to be in Kutch district (81.4%), the state capital Gandhinagar with 73.7% and the commercial capital Ahmedabad with 76% are found to be not far behind.
Calling nutrition as “one of the key determinants of development”, the introduction says, the idea of the online atlas is to help India’s policy makers, programme managers, researchers and other stakeholders, who “need” information/data on nutritional status of population groups at country level and at regional/state levels.”

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog