Half of Banswara kids are stunted, over 85% suffer from anaemia

Jaipur: Banswara might have the distinct distinction of having the best sex ratio at birth in the state, but almost half of the children have stunted growth and 85% suffer from anaemia, mostly women.

“Around 85% of children in the age category between six months and 59 months suffer from anaemia and 50 per cent of children under 5 years are stunted,” said the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) report.

Incidentally, Banswara is the only district in the state which has sex ratio at birth (SRB) more than 1000. The SRB was recorded at 1003 in 2018-19. It means that the number of girls born in Banswara is more than boys, which has only happened in the district dominated by tribal population.

“In Rajasthan, there is a strong preference for sons. Nineteen per cent of both women and men want sons, but only 1 per cent of women and men want more daughters than sons. However, most men and women would like to have at least one son and daughter,” the report added.

However, in Banswara, the strong preference of sons does not exist but on the contrary the district is facing a different sort of problem, which is high total fertility rate (TFR). “Since it has high TFR, which is 3.7, the district has been included in Mission Pariwar Vikas launched by the Centre. We are concentrating on reducing the TFR in the district by making family planning methods available to them,” said Dr Deepak Pankaj, additional chief medical health officer (family welfare), Banswara.

The health department is focussing more on encouraging people to adopt family planning methods for spacing between two children. Such methods include injectable contraceptives and post-partum IUD (PPIUDs). However, the major problem in the district is early marriage of girls and early children. “When a girl gets pregnant four times before she attains age of 25, all our efforts go in vain. So, we are encouraging here to keep space between children by using family planning methods for spacing,” said, a health department official.