Maternal & child health ails in Mahbubnagar

​Mahabubnagar: Majority pregnant women and children below the age of 6 years in the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district are facing multiple health problems and suffering from various healthcare issues like malnutrition, anemia and lack of blood. The main reason for this problem is illiteracy, lack of awareness and non-availability of timely access to hospital.

As per the available data, out of the 67,550 pregnant women registered, 9,128 are suffering from anemia and lack of blood, while about 16,825 pregnant women are found to be suffering from malnutrition in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar. Not just women, the children are also suffering from severe malnutrition condition in the district.

The survey report by UNICEF stated that 37 per cent of children from Mahbubnagar are suffering from malnutrition.

According to healthcare analysts from the district, the main reason for the anemia and malnutrition among pregnant women and children is low literacy and steep poverty levels.

Besides this, child marriages were also said to be contributing to the issue. “Low levels of literacy combined with acute poverty are the major reasons for the malnutrition. In addition to this, child marriages and marriage at a very young age have also contributed to anemia and lack of blood among pregnant women.

Though the government is taking all steps to identify pregnant women and provide nutritious food through anganwadis, this has not yet become fool-proof and is not implemented effectively,” said Moses, the President of an NGO, working on various healthcare and child labor eradication programmes in the district.

A recent survey by UNICEF has also found that the total number of pregnant women suffering from anemia contribute to about 13.5 per cent, while those suffering from malnutrition contribute to about 25 per cent.

On the other hand, out of about 2,66,130 children under the age group of 6 years, as many as 77,470 children were found to be suffering from malnutrition.

Even though the State government has entrusted the ICDS to run the anganwadi centers and has been taking various steps to provide nutritious food, lack of awareness among the public and ineffective implementation of these centers have all contributed to the rising malnutrition in the district.

“Every village has an anganwadi center and they have been entrusted the job of identifying the children below age group of 6 years and also identify pregnant women and accordingly the ICDS is supplying eggs and nutritious food for them.

The anganwadi centers will also provide healthcare checkups for the pregnant women and will give health cards for each woman indicating the time line of the healthcare checkups and provide information about the vaccination to pregnant women,” informed Govindrajulu, Project director, ICDS.

By: Amguthr Raju