Thanks to consanguineous marriages, lack of awareness about genetic disorders and general failure of the government’s outreach, 5-6 per cent of Indian babies are born with congenital deformities, much more than the global average of 3-5 per cent. While 25 per cent of these babies never grow up to adulthood, the rest lead a troubled and painful life, needing utmost care and support from their families in addition to the financial implications.
Though in 2004, the state government took initiatives to bring down the incidence of congenital heart disease, today, a total of 80,000 to 1 lakh children are born in the state with genetic disorders from cleft lip to thalassemia, which are largely avoidable, say experts. “There is an absolute lack of awareness in rural areas and also in a majority of our cities about genetic disorders, their causes, diagnosis and prevention. We are educating medicos, the nursing and paramedical fraternity to look for such deformities during pre-natal scans, and more importantly, to counsel couples during pre-natal and even at pre-marital stage.