To mitigate the rising incidence of anaemia in children, The National Centre of Excellence and Advanced Research on Anaemia Control (NCEAR-A), AIIMS, New Delhi has recently organised a full-day meeting on ‘C2IQ’ for Control of Anaemia in Children (0-19 years): A Time for Action - “Coverage, Continuity, Intensity and Quality”, to understand the issues in the management and control of the high burden of anaemia among children and adolescents in the country. 

The other organising partners were – the Paediatric and Adolescent Nutrition (PAN) Society, the Indian Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH), the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) and UNICEF, India. The NCEAR-A is a technical support unit established by the Government of India as part of Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) at the Centre for Community Medicine (CCM), AIIMS, New Delhi. 

Control of Anaemia in children event organised at AIIMS saw a galaxy of public health experts such as Prof. M. Srinivas, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi, Prof. Vinod K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, Padma Shri Dr Chandrakant S. Pandav, Professor and Former Head, CCM, AIIMS, Delhi and Prof. N. K. Arora, Executive Director, INCLEN chaired the scientific discussion sessions. Other dignitaries were Dr Rajiv Bahl, DG, ICMR who addressed the meeting as a distinguished guest, and Prof Jagdish Chandra, ESI Medical College, New Delhi deliberated on nutritional anaemia among children and adolescents as a keynote address. 

 Anaemia in children affects their physical growth as well as mental development. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 67% of under-five children and 59% of adolescent girls and 31% of adolescent boys are anaemic.

The participating experts unanimously endorsed the public health significance of the high burden of anaemia in the country. The consultation was attended by more than 150 delegates from across India and had senior policymakers, academicians and program implementers as participants. They acknowledged that control of anaemia in children will be critical to India’s march towards Viksit Bharat Abhiyan @2047.