In a landmark step towards accelerating India's efforts to combat anemia, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda today released Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan Operational Guidelines during the 16th Meeting of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW) held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The significant release marks eight years of sustained programmatic progress and charts a sharper, more comprehensive course for addressing anemia across the country. The launch also formalizes the programme's transition from Anemia Mukt Bharat to Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, reflecting its evolution into a more comprehensive approach that extends beyond supplementation to encompass testing, therapeutic management, eating right and community involvement through 'Jan Chetna'.
The Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan and the revised Operational Guidelines seek to shift the focus of anemia management from prophylactic care to therapeutic care through intensified testing, treatment, tracking and case-based management. The guidelines expand the existing 6x6x6 strategy into a 7x7x7 framework, adding a seventh beneficiary group, a seventh intervention, and a seventh institutional mechanism.
Low Birth Weight (LBW) babies (0–6 months) have been included as the seventh beneficiary group, recognizing that breaking the intergenerational cycle of anemia must begin at the earliest. The "Eating Right" approach- promoting conscious consumption of iron-rich and diversified diets as a daily habit - has been introduced as the seventh intervention.
A strengthened Monitoring and Evaluation framework for digital tracking forms the seventh institutional mechanism. A defining feature of this Abhiyaan is the transition from the T3 approach (Test, Treat, Talk) to the T4 approach (Test, Treat, Talk, Track), anchoring the programme with intensive testing, treating iron deficiency anemia as per anemia management protocols and tracking beneficiaries for referral and follow-up along with targeted counselling for eating right.
For anemia management of severe and non-responders among pregnant and lactating women, Intravenous Iron Therapy (FCM and Iron sucrose) is included as a clinical intervention. The revised guidelines establish a robust digital ecosystem for tracking anemia services.
Hemoglobin testing records for pregnant women will be mapped through the JANANI portal, children's records through the RBSK and U-WIN portal, all converging into a unified Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan Portal for comprehensive analysis and planning.From beneficiary screening and counselling to treatment and follow-up, the entire continuum of care will now be digitally tracked and made available through the portal.
The launch also marks the rollout of ‘Jan Bhagidari’ a nationwide community mobilisation effort aimed at transforming the passive acceptance of anemia into active engagement of individuals, families, and communities across India to de-normalize anemia. The Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan advocates a 'Whole of Government' approach, with convergence at intra and inter ministerial level for addressing anemia and placing it as a cross-sectoral priority.
Collectively, the interventions under the revised Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan are expected to accelerate the reduction in anemia prevalence across the lifecycle, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and contribute to reductions in the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), reaffirming the Government's continued commitment to strengthening nutrition and maternal and child health and accelerating progress towards an Anemia Mukt Bharat.