In a bid to address Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s concern on “unacceptably high” levels of malnutrition in India, a meeting has been called at the PMO on Tuesday to examine the possibility of promoting double fortification of salt with iron (it is already fortified with iodine).
To be chaired by the Prime Minister’s principal secretary T.K.A. Nair, it will be attended by senior officials of the ministries of health, women and child development, industries, as well as the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition. The matter assumes significance given that nearly 46 per cent of Indian women in the 5-to-54 age group as well as 70 per cent of children suffer from anaemia, which is caused by iron deficiency. The meeting is expected to discuss how malnutrition in such categories of the population can be tackled. NIN Hyderabad, which has already developed technology for salt’s double fortification to check anaemia, has estimated that nearly 70-80 per cent of India’s population suffers from an iron deficiency.