According to a survey issued on Monday on National Girl Child Day, which is commemorated annually on January 24 to raise awareness about the rights, education, health, and nutrition of girls under the age of 15, almost 46% of Indian girls under the age of 15 are anaemic.
SRL Diagnostics' findings are based on a total of 8,57,003 haemoglobin tests performed during the last seven years, from January 2015 to November 2021.
According to the data, anaemia was detected in 63% of the samples from women of all ages.
However, 46% of samples from females under the age of 15 tested positive for anaemia. Thirteen percent of them were seriously anaemic.
The survey also revealed that Assam has the worst situation, with 72 percent of married women anaemic, followed by Haryana (69.7%) and Jharkhand (68.4%).
1.62 billion individuals, or 24.8 percent of the world's population, suffer from anaemia.
More over half of Indian women (55%) had anaemia, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-(III).
SRL Diagnostics' CEO, Anand K., issued a statement on the matter, "prevalence of anaemia in all the groups is higher in India as compared to other developing countries."
SRL Diagnostics' Technical Director, Dr. Anurag Bansal, contributed his two cents, "Diagnosing the root cause of anaemia is very important. While predominantly anaemia is caused due to iron deficiency or a deficiency in vitamin b12, there could be other reasons for anaemia that needs to be investigated."
Anaemia is the most common nutritional deficiency ailment in the world, characterised by a reduction in the number of circulating red blood cells and/or haemoglobin contained within.
Anemia can result from a lack of healthy blood cells, the destruction of too many red blood cells, or the loss of circulating red blood cells, all of which can lead to anaemia.
While lesser forms of anaemia are "asymptomatic," they are linked with symptoms such as weariness, weakness, dizziness, and sleepiness in more severe forms.
If untreated, anaemia can deteriorate and become an underlying cause of chronic disease, including decreased foetal development during pregnancy, delayed cognitive development and higher infection risk in young children, and lower physical ability in everyone.
Anand remarked, “Mitigating anemia in India needs a multi-level approach that includes a high level of awareness building, behaviour change communication and challenging societal norms related to women nutrition and health needs.”
