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हिन्दी — Read in HindiNon communicable diseases, nutrition and food safety
Diseases that are not caught from others, nutrition and food safety: cancers, diabetes, heart disease, inherited blood disorders, diseases carried in drinking water such as fluorosis, fortification, food labelling and tobacco. Prelims has asked about fluoride among the pollutants in India's drinking water.
Fluorosis
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Fluorosis is the harm done to the teeth and the bone by years of drinking groundwater that carries fluoride.
- It is not a poisoning that arrives from a factory: the fluoride is in the rock the groundwater passes through.
- So a village can drink it for years with nothing having gone wrong upstream.
- India's groundwater fluoride is largely geogenic.
Dental fluorosis
- Mottles and pits tooth enamel
Skeletal fluorosis
- Builds up in bone over years
- Bones turn dense and brittle, joints stiff
What changed
9 Sep 2026
- The remedy is safe water: either a source carrying less fluoride, or taking the fluoride out of the water there is, which is defluoridation.
- IS 10500, the Bureau of Indian Standards drinking water standard, sets 1.0 mg per litre as the acceptable fluoride limit, relaxed to 1.5 where no other source exists.
- The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) developed the Nalgonda technique, a low cost community defluoridation method.
- The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Fluorosis is the health system's side of the answer, alongside safe water.
National Family Health Survey 6
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The National Family Health Survey is India's periodic household survey of health, nutrition and fertility; the sixth round covers 2023 to 24.
NFHS 5 and NFHS 6
| NFHS 5 | NFHS 6 (2023 to 2024) | |
|---|---|---|
| Indicators | 131 | 101 |
| Anaemia and haemoglobin | measured, from finger or heel prick blood | dropped |
| Mortality, sex ratio, sanitation, clean fuel, registration | reported | dropped |
| Malaria testing | measured, from dried blood spots | dropped |
| Non communicable disease biomarkers | measured | some kept |
| External support | technical and financial support from outside, including the Demographic and Health Surveys Programme | none: run by the International Institute for Population Sciences alone |
What changed
24 Jul 2026
- Institutional deliveries rose to 90.6 per cent and full immunisation of children aged 12 to 23 months to 87.1 per cent.
- Stunting among children under five fell to 29.3 per cent.
- Against this, 30.7 per cent of women and 27.3 per cent of men aged 15 to 49 are now overweight or obese.
Mains: India now carries a double burden of undernutrition and metabolic disease.
PIB, 24 Jul 2026: NFHS-6 Highlights Rising lifestyle diseases among Adults (opens in a new tab)
23 Jun 2026
- The factsheets came about two years after fieldwork ended.
- They cover fewer indicators than NFHS 5, and the International Institute for Population Sciences ran the survey for the first time without external technical or financial support.
- The total fertility rate held at 2.0.
Mains: The omissions remove the evidence needed to judge Anaemia Mukt Bharat, Poshan Abhiyaan, Swachh Bharat and Ujjwala, and the Sample Registration System cannot substitute because it is only a sample survey.
Frontline, 23 Jun 2026: What NFHS-6 doesn't tell us (opens in a new tab)
Foodborne illness in India
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Foodborne illness covers over 200 diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals.
- Arsenic enters food in eastern India through groundwater used for irrigation and drinking, including rice; lead comes from spices and cookware, methylmercury from some fish.
- Chemical contaminants cause fewer cases but more severe disease, disability and death.
What changed
21 Jun 2026BriefWHO's latest estimates add four heavy metals, arsenic, cadmium, lead and methylmercury, to the foodborne disease burden. India records an estimated 100 million cases a year, likely an undercount. The Hindu, 21 Jun 2026: Chemical contaminants, climate change and AMR are complicating food-borne illnesses: India needs to step up its game, say experts (opens in a new tab)
See also: Codex Alimentarius Commission
Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan: 7x7x7
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Anemia Mukt Bharat ran for eight years on a 6x6x6 strategy of six beneficiary groups, six interventions and six institutional mechanisms, with prophylactic iron supplementation at its centre.
- The revised programme shifts to therapeutic care: intensive testing, treatment of iron deficiency anaemia by protocol, and tracking for referral and follow up.
- Including low birth weight babies is meant to break the intergenerational cycle of anaemia.
6x6x6 to 7x7x7
| 6x6x6 | 7x7x7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Beneficiary groups | six | seven: adds low birth weight babies, 0 to 6 months |
| Interventions | six, with prophylactic iron supplementation at the centre | seven: adds Eating Right |
| Institutional mechanisms | six | seven: adds digital monitoring and evaluation |
| Approach | T3: Test, Treat, Talk | T4: adds Track |
What changed
29 Jun 2026New
- Revised guidelines turn the programme into Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan and 6x6x6 into 7x7x7: low birth weight babies (0 to 6 months) as the seventh beneficiary group, Eating Right as the seventh intervention and digital monitoring as the seventh mechanism.
- T3 (Test, Treat, Talk) becomes T4 with Track.
- Intravenous iron (ferric carboxymaltose, iron sucrose) is added for severe cases and non responders among pregnant and lactating women.
- A unified portal draws haemoglobin records from the Janani portal for pregnant women and from the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) and U-WIN for children.
See also: National Family Health Survey 6
SUMAN Roadmap 2030 and SSBSK
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The Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) Roadmap 2030 takes a life cycle approach from pre pregnancy to the postnatal period and tracks high risk pregnancies across four stages: antenatal, third trimester, intrapartum and postnatal.
- It is anchored in the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health plus Nutrition framework.
- The Samagra Shishu Bal Swasthya Karyakram merges Home Based Newborn Care and Home Based Care for Young Child into one risk stratified programme for children from birth to 36 months.
What changed
29 Jun 2026BriefThe SUMAN Roadmap 2030 targets a Maternal Mortality Ratio below 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030 and zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths. PIB, 29 Jun 2026: Union Health Minister Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda Launches 'SUMAN Roadmap 2030' to Strengthen Maternal and Newborn Healthcare (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jun 2026: Union Health Minister Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda Launches Samagra Shishu Bal Swasthya Karyakram (SSBSK) at the 16th CCHFW Meeting to Strengthen Child Health and Early Childhood Development (opens in a new tab)
Cancer
Cancer: notification and the global count
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Making cancer a notifiable disease obliges doctors and hospitals to report every case to the State.
- Notification fills the gap left by cancer registries that cover only about 10 to 16 per cent of the population.
- The Centre holds that notification is meant for communicable diseases.
- The World Health Organization's Global Status Report on Cancer gives the global count and shows the survival gap between rich and poor countries.
What changed
8 Jul 2026New
- Telangana became the seventeenth State to make cancer notifiable.
- The WHO report estimates about 20.6 million new cases and close to 10 million deaths a year, rising to about 35 million cases by 2050.
- Five year survival from breast cancer is about 87 per cent in high income countries against about 42 per cent in low income countries.
Mains: the survival gap is largely a matter of price and access, which is the case for using compulsory licensing.
The Hindu, 4 Jul 2026: Counting cancer (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 8 Jul 2026 · The Indian Express, 20 Jul 2026: WHO's Global Status Report on Cancer puts the inequity in survival, not in incidence (opens in a new tab)