All that was discussed in the House through the day
A recent report of the Lancet Commission does not state the efforts of the Government of India through the recently launched National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, Satya Pal Singh Baghel, Minister of State for the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the Lok Sabha.
The costs required to reduce the risk of sickle cell disease (SCD) are beyond the reach of most individuals in India and sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is most prevalent, a Commission report published in The Lancet Haematology journal had found.
The suggestions in the report are already in place in the country through this mission, the minister said. There are many point-of-care testing (POC) available and in use in India, including indigenous ones. Further, all efforts of the country are not indicated in the report.
It is not true that the country has the highest burden of disability caused by SCD, as the data presented in the report pertains only to African countries, Baghel said. It is also to be noted in the report that the data on SCD in India is an estimate based on probabilistic birth projections by country by 2023.
The projected number is based on limited regional data sources from highly prevalent areas, which increases the chance of overestimation and will not reflect the true percentage in the country, the minister added.
The data on nutritional indicators is captured under the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) conducted periodically by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development, told the Lok Sabha.
The last round, NFHS-5, was conducted during 2019-21. The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among children under five years of age is 35.5 per cent, 19.3 per cent and 32.1 per cent, according to the NFHS-5.
However, according to the Poshan Tracker, ICT application for Mission Poshan 2.0, close to 70 million children were measured in the country in June 2023 as per which seven per cent were wasted and 19 per cent underweight, which is significantly lower than NFHS indicators, she said.
Mortality due to tobacco in India is estimated at upwards of 1.3 million, according to the report of the second round of Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-2), 2016-17, Baghel told the Lok Sabha.
Family Planning services are delivered as an integral component of the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health + Nutrition strategy through all levels of public health facilities across the country including in backward and rural areas, Baghel told the Lok Sabha.
Efforts of the Government have been successful and progress has been achieved — the total fertility rate declined from 2.2 in 2015-16 (NFHS-4) to 2.0 in 2019-21 (NFHS-5) which is below replacement level and 31 out of 36 states / Union Territories have achieved replacement level fertility (NFHS-5), the minister said.
The Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has launched Harit Sagar Green Port Guidelines to reduce carbon intensity and develop an environment-friendly ecosystem at major ports with the participation of all stakeholders, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways told the Lok Sabha.
Under these guidelines, various green interventions such as electrification of port equipment, use of greener fuels in port crafts, creation of infrastructure at select ports for storage, bunkering and refuelling of green hydrogen and its derivatives, increasing the share of renewable energy, etc. have been provided.
So far, 10 plastic parks have been approved in the country, Bhagwanth Khuba, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers and New And Renewable Energy told the Lok Sabha. Of these, two for Madhya Pradesh and one for Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh each have been planned.
These parks are currently in various stages of completion, the minister said. The scheme for setting up of plastic parks is a subscheme under the Central Sector Scheme of New Scheme of Petrochemicals.
The prevalence of underweight (body mass index of less than 18.5 kilogrammes per square metre) among women in urban and rural areas is 13.2 per cent and 21.2 per cent, respectively, according to NFHS-5 (2019-21), Irani told the Lok Sabha.
The prevalence of underweight adolescent girls (15-19 years) is 39.7 per cent, the minister said. The prevalence of anaemia among women in urban and rural areas is 53.8 per cent and 58.5 per cent, respectively and adolescent girls in urban and rural areas is 56.5 per cent and 60.2 per cent, respectively.
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