Tamil Nadu salt can help eradicate anaemia: UNICEF

Chennai: Almost half of the women population in Tamil Nadu, a staggering 49.2 percent is anaemic, as per the latest District Level Household survey. More surprising is the fact that the solution to this problem, ‘double fortified salt’ is produced only in one State in the country- Tamil Nadu.

According to officials at UNICEF office for Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the biggest cause for anaemia is low levels of iron in the body and unlike other salts that only contain iodine this ‘double fortified salt’ produced only by Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation (TNSC) also contains iron.

The TNSC has been working on producing this salt over the last 10-15 years and has only recently succeeded in its mission. The salt (Amma Salt) is available in the market, for Rs14 per kg but Mr. Job Zacharaiah, Chief, UNICEF office for Tamil Nadu and Kerala, hopes that the salt is also made available in ration shops. He said that the salt is being bought by Karnataka Government and distributed in their ration shops and wonders why it’s not being done here as well.

On the dangers of anaemia, Mr. Zachariah, said, “ Anaemia is a silent killer. The fact that it isn’t very visible undermines its seriousness as a potential killer. The technology to produce it is very cheap and therefore effort must be taken to encourage people to buy this salt, to increase their iron intake”

Ms Farhat Sayyid, nutritionist, UNICEF, said, “The ‘Haemo’ in Heamoglobin stands for iron, and so if there are low levels of iron in the body, then the blood is weak which in turn reduces the oxygen intake of the body and that is what causes anaemia.” She added that it was especially difficult for women because of loss of blood during their monthly menstruation cycle.

In TN, about a 1,000 women die every year during childbirth and anaemia accounts for 20 per cent of those deaths directly, and another 50 per cent indirectly, because of complications and loss of blood. An anaemic woman is most likely to give birth to a premature baby risking malnutrition or even death of the child. Also young girls between the ages of 10-19 who have anaemia lose their IQ points by 5-10 percent invariably leading to their becoming school drop-outs.

According to studies, TN loses about '8,000 crores of its GDP every year because anaemia affects such a large part of its population. Keeping all this in mind, members of UNICEF have come together to promote this newly developed double fortified salt that they claim could eradicate the disease completely. Mr Zachariah also added it is essential that other big salt companies also produce double fortified salts, so that the whole country can be free of anaemia among men and women.