Health Ministry to launch revised Mukt Bharat Anemia Guidelines

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The Union Health Ministry is all set to launch revised operational guidelines for the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Abhiyaan on Monday (June 29, 2026), expanding the strategy of the national program to include a new set of beneficiaries, greater focus on dietary interventions and digital tracking of beneficiaries.

The instructions, which will be issued by Union Health Minister JP Nadda during the 16th meeting of the Central Health and Family Welfare Board at Vigyan Bhawan, marks the transition of the program from Anemia Mukt Bharat to Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan. The revised framework seeks to strengthen anemia control through better testing, treatment, monitoring and community participation.

The existing 6x6x6 strategy has been expanded to a 7x7x7 framework. The revised program adds low birth weight infants (0–6 months) as a seventh beneficiary group, recognizing the need for early intervention against anemia.

A new ‘healthy eating’ component was introduced as the seventh intervention to promote the regular consumption of an iron-rich and varied diet. The seventh institutional mechanism focuses on strengthening monitoring and evaluation through digital surveillance.

The guidelines also replace the current T3 Test, Treat and Talk approach with a T4 Test, Treat, Talk and Track strategy. The revised approach emphasizes routine hemoglobin testing, treatment according to national anemia management protocols, systematic follow-up of beneficiaries for referral and follow-up, and counseling on healthy nutrition.

For pregnant and lactating women with severe anemia or those unresponsive to oral iron therapy, guidelines recommend intravenous iron therapy with ferric carboxymaltose and ferric sucrose.

The ministry has also designed an integrated digital ecosystem for monitoring anemia services. Hemoglobin testing records of pregnant women will be captured through the JANANI portal, while child data will be captured through the RBSK and U-WIN portals. These platforms will then be merged into a unified AMB Abhiyaan portal that will facilitate program monitoring, analysis and planning.

“The revised operational guidelines are aimed at strengthening the country’s anemia control program by combining iron supplementation with improved diagnosis, therapeutic management, nutritional interventions and digital monitoring,” the ministry said on Sunday (June 28, 2026).

Despite years of sustained interventions, anemia remains a major public health problem in India. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) of the Union Ministry of Health and Welfare shows that 67.1% of children aged 6 to 59 months, 57% of women aged 15 to 49, 52.2% of pregnant women and 59.1% of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 are anemic.

Anemia impairs physical growth, cognitive development, learning ability, work productivity, and maternal health, while increasing the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

The Department of Health says the burden of anemia is not just due to iron deficiency, but also folate and vitamin B12 deficiency, infections, worms, inherited blood disorders and poor dietary diversity, highlighting the need for a comprehensive life-cycle approach to prevention and treatment.

Published – 28 Jun 2026 15:49 IST