Launching new anti-anaemia strategy without enough evidence could waste public funds, warn experts

NewsIndia NewsLaunching new anti-anaemia strategy without enough evidence could waste public funds, warn experts Launching new anti-anaemia strategy without enough evidence could waste public funds, warn experts Experts are questioning India's push for double-fortified salt to fight anaemia, citing limited evidence and the risk of overlooking wider causes of iron deficiency.

(AI-generated image) From fortification of rice with iron, as the focus shifts to double fortification of salt (DFS) with iron and iodine in a bid to tackle high incidence of anaemia, several public health experts have sounded a warning against introducing any intervention without enough evidence.

The new national anaemia prevalence data is yet to be made public though the survey was completed in November 2025.In response to an RTI application, the National Institute of Nutrition had stated in September that the analysis of the data from the Diet and Biomarkers Survey of India (DABS-I) launched in December 2022 and completed three years later is still under progress.

The DABS-I survey, now renamed Survey for Assessment of Markers of Population Health, Activity, Diet and Anthropometry (SAMPADA), has used venous blood samples or samples drawn from veins, said to be the gold standard to estimate anaemia.

DABS-I, which covers only 2.6 lakh people in the survey, will give state level prevalence, unlike NFHS with a sample size of seven lakh, which gives district-level data.However, with the data from the survey not being made public, India has no anaemia data since the last NFHS survey in 2019-21.

That NFHS survey showed an increase in anaemia over the last survey in 2115-16. The government rejected the anaemia data from the 2019-21 survey on the grounds that it used blood samples drawn from the tip of the finger, which studies have shown to be unreliable.

InsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig Development The government has already spent about Rs 2,700 crore on rice fortification every year for several years. Public health experts cautioned against one more universal scheme that could waste thousands of crores of rupees of public funds, which could be utilised for more localised evidence-backed interventions.

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