HYDERABAD: The Telangana Statistical Abstract (ATLAS) 2024 which was released by the state government on Monday presented a grim scenario as far as the infant and adult health were concerned.
According to the report, in 2023-24, 4,41,166 mothers between the age group of 15-49 years were enrolled for the supplementary nutrition programme. Out of them 71.4%, i.e. 3,14,997, received supplementary nutrition, implying around 30% of mothers were not covered under the programme.
The share of enrolled mothers who received supplementary nutrition was the highest in Vikarabad at 79.8% and lowest in Hyderabad at 51.7%. Further, the supplementary nutrition programme covered 74.8%, indicating that the benefit did not reach 25.2% in 2023-24. In this period, 18,04,997 children between the age of 7 months and 6 years were enrolled for the supplementary nutrition programme in the state, out of them 74.8% , i.e. 13,49,550 received supplementary nutrition.
The share of enrolled children who received supplementary nutrition was the highest in Vikarabad at 85.4% and lowest in Medchal-Malkajgiri at 60.3%. Interestingly, as many as 70% of children in the age group of 6-59 months in the state are anaemic as per the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS)-5, with a sharp rise of 9.3% from NFHS-4 where 60.7% children were said to have been anaemic.
Furthermore, the number of pregnant women between the age group of 15-49 who were anaemic also increased from 48.2% in NFHS-4 to 53.2% in NFHS-5. Number of individual with high blood sugar also saw a rise - the percentage of women with high blood-sugar level also saw a rise from 3.9% in NFHS-4 to 7% in NFHS-5 and the percentage of men with very high blood-sugar levels saw an almost 50% rise with 4.1% in NFHS-4 to 9.3% in NFHS-5.
The percentage of moderately or severely elevated blood pressure in both male and female was also concerning, with females recording a sharp rise from 1.7% to 6.3% and males recording 3.5% to 8.1% in NFHS-5.