Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Sep;16(9):1667-76.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980012005587. Epub 2013 Jan 24.

The Adolescent Girls' Anaemia Control Programme: a decade of programming experience to break the inter-generational cycle of malnutrition in India

Víctor M Aguayo  1 , Kajali Paintal, Gayatri Singh
Affiliations

The Adolescent Girls' Anaemia Control Programme: a decade of programming experience to break the inter-generational cycle of malnutrition in India

Víctor M Aguayo et al. Public Health Nutr. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: To document the scale-up of India’s Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme following a knowledge-centred framework for scaling up nutrition interventions and to identify the critical elements of and lessons learned from a decade of programme experience for the control of anaemia in adolescent girls.

Design: We reviewed all articles, programme and project reports, and baseline and endline assessments published between 1995 and 2012 regarding the control of anaemia through intermittent iron and folic acid supplementation; key programme specialists and managers were interviewed to complete or verify information wherever needed.

Setting: India.

Subjects: Adolescent girls.

Results: The scale-up of India’s Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme followed a knowledge-centred programme cycle comprising five phases: Evidence, Innovation, Evaluation, Replication and Universalization. By the end of 2011, the programme was being rolled out in thirteen states and was reaching 27.6 million adolescent girls of whom 16.3 million were school-going girls and 11.3 million were out-of-school girls. Building on the critical elements of and lessons learned from the programme, the Government of India launched in 2012 the national Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme to universalize the benefits of anaemia control to the overall population of Indian adolescents.

Conclusions: The Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme in India provides a good example of how a knowledge-centred approach can successfully guide the scaling up of public health nutrition interventions and facilitate intersectoral convergence among different government departments and development partners to break the inter-generational cycle of undernutrition and deprivation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(colour online) Knowledge-centred programme cycle: from innovation to universalization. Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme, India
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(colour online) Reduction in the prevalence of overall anaemia (Hb < 120 g/l) in adolescent girls after 1 year of programme implementation. Innovation phase (2000–2005), Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme, India
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(colour online) Reduction in the prevalence of moderate-to-severe anaemia (Hb < 100 g/l) in adolescent girls after 1 year of programme implementation. Innovation phase (2000–2005), Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme, India
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Replication phase (2006–2010): key programme implementers of the school-based component of the Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme, India
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Replication phase (2006–2010): key programme implementers of the community-based component of the Adolescent Girls’ Anaemia Control Programme, India (CDPO, Child Development Programme Officers; ICDS, Integrated Child Development Services)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Government of India Census Bureau (2001) Population of States and Union Territories (UTs) of India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Projected_Population/Proj... (accessed May 2012).
    1. UNICEF (2012) Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity. The State of the World's Children, 2011 . New York: UNICEF.
    1. International Institute for Population Sciences (2006) National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005–2006 . Mumbai and Calverton, MD: International Institute for Population Sciences and ORC Macro.
    1. Lynch AR (2000) The potential impact of iron supplementation during adolescence on iron status in pregnancy. J Nutr 130, 2S Suppl., 448S–451S. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (2011) Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Programmes for Women of Reproductive Age: An Analysis of Best Programme Practices . Geneva: WHO.