A country where one-third of adolescent girls are undernourished, aspiring for a healthy nation seems a far fetched dream.  Almost 56.2 per cent women of reproductive age are anaemic in India.

The number of adolescent girls (in the age group of 11-18 years), constituting 17 per cent of the total female population, is 8.3 crore, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The female literacy rate is only 53.87 per cent, which is considerably low.

Among women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the NFHS said neo-natal mortality rate for the first five-year period preceding the survey for SCs is 46.3 per 1,000 while for the general populace is 39 per 1,000.

Infant mortality rate for the first five-year period preceding the survey for SC/STs is 66.4 while for the rest it is 57.

For the same time period, other health parameters like the under-five mortality rate for SC/STs is 88.1 per 1,000 and 74.3 for the general populace.

The percentage of married women with anaemia is 58.3 for SC/STs as against 56.2 per cent national average.

While among the general population, 11.5 per cent women are graduates, among SC/STs the corresponding figure is 3.9 per cent, the survey said.

Though a number of initiatives have been taken and a lot of them are in queue to be implemented by the ministries and concerned authorities, still the facts say a lot about the inefficiency of the programmes working for women.