ANANTAPUR: Anaemia remains a major public health issue among women and girl children of the undivided Anantapur district. According to the data, around 25% of pregnant women, who enrolled in Anganwadi centres, and 61.74% of adolescent girls are found to be anaemic.
Project Director of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) BS Sridevi said that the government has taken several measures like providing eggs, milk and other protein food to pregnant women through Anganwadis and nutritious food such as eggs, ragi soup, chikki under Jaganna Gorumudda scheme, the number of anaemic cases have been rising in the district.
ICDS officials have conducted haemoglobin tests in Anganwadi centres on around 20,947 pregnant women and found 6,434 women are anaemic. Experts also point out that early marriages and child marriages are one of the major reasons for prevailing anaemia cases. It may be noted that Anantapur stands top of the State in child marriages and 37.3% of cases in AP are from this district.
It is learnt that among 58,738 girl students aged 10 to 19 from 1,292 schools, 36,265 students are anaemic.
Similarly, out of 6,774 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) students, 2,794 are found to be anaemic.