Kathmandu, May 30:

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) Child Health Division released a five-year action plan aimed at checking the incidence of anaemia among women and children, amid a programme here today.

As per the action plan, the government today said it would concentrate its resources to provide Iron and Folic Acid tablets, change food habits and expand de-worming programmes among the targeted groups.

Seventy-eight per cent of the children below five, 75 per cent of the pregnant women, 68 per cent of all women are anaemic, according to Micronutrient Survey Study, 1998, while 90 per cent of children in the age group 6-11 months are anaemic.

Dr Yasovardan Pradhan, director at the CHD, said the action plan would help materialise goals of the second health plan and to achieve the millennium development goals. “It will also help check high maternal and child mortality,” Pradhan said. The action plan was prepared with the help of Micro-Nutritient Initiative (MI), an INGO, along with the support from various others NGOs and INGOs.

According to Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2001, the maternal mortality rate is 539 per 100,000, the under-five mortality rate is 91 per 1000 live births, while the infant mortality rate stands at 64 per 1,000 live births.