With a vast majority of children and women still anemic despite concerted efforts of the Government, there is a need to pull out all stops for tackling the menace as has been done by Singapore to transform itself from a water-starved country to a water-resilient leader, a senior official from NITI Aaayog, the country’s top think tank, has suggested.
“India should also use a similar strategy (as adopted by Singapore) to tackle Anaemia to improve the public health system,” Yugal Kishore Joshi, Director Mission Life, Niti Aayog said as he noted that the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 indicate 67.1 per cent children below the age of 5 continue to grapple with anaemia and 57 per cent of women between the age of 15 and 49 are anaemic.
Today, Singapore is leading the way in innovative and resilient water infrastructure, harnessing the power of digital technologies to deliver this vital resource to the population, said Joshi while speaking at a 2-day conference on anemia menace held here recently. It was attended by senior officials from the Union Health Ministry such as Roli Singh, Additional Secretary, Dr Zoya Ali Rizvi, Deputy Commissioner, Nutrition Division and Basant Kar, also known as Nutrition Man of India along with key public health experts and researchers.
Responding to the reason for lack of funds for longer duration health and nutrition interventions, Meera Satpathy, Founder and Chairperson, Sukarya, a non-profit said that “The government, corporates and non-profits NGOs should urgently come together and engage with communities to strengthen distribution of maternal and child healthcare to the last-mile.”
Talking about the role of data, technologies and implementation research in maternal and child nutrition interventions, the panelists deliberated threadbare on lack of clear regulations and guidelines for the use of AI in healthcare, using diverse training data to mitigate bias and combine technology with human intervention at adequate touchpoints.
Dr Kirk Tickell (Faculty at the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health) dwelled on maternal and child health services in Kenya, sharing that how it’s important to include men in families and sensitize them about the importance of maternal and child healthcare because when it comes to patriarchal settings, they still play a key role in deciding crucial things pertaining to women’s reproductive health.