VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has bagged first rank in Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Index with a score of 85.9% up to September 2022, up from 79.1% in June 2022. Launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), the AMB programme focuses on health and nutrition needs of children, adolescents, women of reproductive age group, pregnant and lactating mothers.
As part of the programme, Iron Folic Acid (IFA) in the form of tablets, injections or syrup is distributed to lactating mothers and adolescent girls, pregnant women and infants by government authorities through a network of ASHA and Anganwadi workers based on the severity of anaemia. The rankings are published based on the IFA coverage in each region.
The average AMB index of the country stood at 50.4%. It may be noted that Andhra Pradesh is the only State with an AMB index in 75-95% range, followed by Maharashtra with 74.8% and Chhattisgarh with 73.8%. Meanwhile, Manipur secured the last rank in the States category as per the latest index.
For children in the age group of 6 to 59 months, AMB index for IFA coverage stood at 83.8%, while it was 82.6% for children in 5-9 years group. The value was 95% for both adolescents - aged between 10 and 19 years - and pregnant women, while the value stood at 73.3% among lactating mothers.
Meanwhile, the corresponding AMB index for the same categories in India was 25.4%, 33.7%, 39.4%, 94.6% and 59.1%, respectively.
On the other hand, Telangana secured 18th rank among 38 States with an average AMB index of 41.7%.
The AMB index value in the category of children in the age group 6 to 59 months was 5%, 5.7% in children aged 5-9 years, 7.9% among adolescents in 10 to 19 years age group and 95% for both pregnant and lactating women.