BharatNotes What is Anaemia Mukt Bharat?
Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), launched in 2018 to accelerate the reduction of anaemia across the life cycle. It operates as the anaemia-specific arm of POSHAN Abhiyaan (the National Nutrition Mission, launched March 2018) and was framed to meet the anaemia targets of the NITI Aayog National Nutrition Strategy.
The core objective is to reduce the prevalence of anaemia by 3 percentage points per year among children, adolescents and women of reproductive age (15-49 years). This was a sharp scale-up of ambition, given that anaemia had declined by less than 1% per annum between 2005 and 2015.
The 6x6x6 Strategy
AMB is built around a "6x6x6" architecture — six target groups, six interventions and six institutional mechanisms.
| Pillar | Components |
|---|---|
| 6 Target groups | Children 6-59 months; children 5-9 years; adolescents 10-19 years; women of reproductive age (15-49 yrs); pregnant women; lactating women |
| 6 Interventions | Prophylactic iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation; periodic deworming; intensified year-round behaviour change communication; testing and treatment using digital haemoglobinometers and point-of-care care; mandatory IFA fortification of foods in public programmes; addressing non-nutritional causes (e.g. malaria, fluorosis) in endemic pockets |
| 6 Institutional mechanisms | Inter-ministerial coordination; convergence with line ministries; strengthening supply chain and logistics; a National Centre of Excellence and Advanced Research on Anaemia; supportive supervision; and a robust monitoring/dashboard system |
The programme follows a life-cycle approach and is estimated to reach a very large beneficiary base. It absorbed and intensified earlier schemes such as the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme.
Significance and Current Status
Anaemia is a major drag on maternal health, child development, learning outcomes and workforce productivity, making it both a health and a human-capital issue. Despite AMB, NFHS-5 (2019-21) recorded 57% of women (15-49) and 67% of children (6-59 months) as anaemic — both higher than NFHS-4 (2015-16) figures of roughly 53% and 58%. This rise underscores the gap between policy design and outcomes, partly attributed to compliance, supply-chain and measurement-method issues.
UPSC Angle
For Prelims, focus on factual anchors: 2018 launch, MoHFW, the 6x6x6 structure, the 3-percentage-point annual target, and the POSHAN Abhiyaan/WIFS linkage. For Mains (GS2 health/welfare, GS3 food security), AMB is strong evidence in answers analysing why India's anaemia burden persists despite sustained intervention, and how convergence, fortification and behaviour-change communication can be strengthened. It is a foundation concept that underpins broader questions on malnutrition and women-and-child health.
Sources: PIB / MoHFW programme documents; NFHS-5 (2019-21) fact sheets.
