ASHA blames Centre for passing the buck to States on flagging risks of consuming fortified rice

Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) has alleged that the Union Government’s move to pass on the task of cautioning the people about the risks in consuming fortified rice to State Governments. “It is a knee-jerk move. It is a desperate attempt by the government to cover up on an unscientific one-size-fits-all approach to anaemia in the country,” it said.

‘Unscientific approach’

ASHA, an umbrella association of farmers’ organisations, non-governmental organisations and scientists working for sustainable agriculture, has said that distributing fortified rice to all people is unscientific as some people in ‘high-risk’ categories are not supposed to consume it.

ASHA and RTFC (Right to Food Campaign) have responded to three RTI replies by the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Women and Child Development with regard to fortified rice, which is being distributed in the country through government schemes.

“The Government has begun to scale up its rice fortification intervention even before the pilots were completed, ignoring numerous scientific, holistic and community-controlled approaches to tackling malnutrition,” ASHA said in a statement on Monday.

Citing attempts by two citizens’ alliances, it said that a major health concern raised was on the risks to certain categories of people, such as those with Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), for whom iron is strictly contra-indicated.

The FSSAI (Fortification of Foods) Regulations 2018 recognised this risk and sought to warn patients about the dangers of consuming the rice fortified with iron.

“Iron-fortified foods are contra-indicated for other conditions too, including acute infections, acute malnourishment, certain stages of malaria and tuberculosis, or even diabetes,” it said.

It criticised the government for going ahead with ‘ill conceived programme, ignoring scientific evidence against the mass consumption of fortified rice.

India has one of the highest disease burdens of thalassemia globally with almost 3.9 crore carriers, as well as the largest number of children with β-thalassemia in the world.

The country has the highest prevalence of Sickle Cell Disease in South Asia, with an estimated two crore carriers. “All such patients are at risk,” the two associations cautioned.

“What is shocking is that the Government of India, under pressure from the evidence showcased by ASHA and RTFC, is now escaping its responsibility by simply issuing circulars to state governments, asking them to “comply” and display the FSSAI regulation on the risks,” it pointed out.

It observed that the issue got compounded as the poor were expected to take a decision based on two different, contradictory messages – one promoting fortified rice and the other cautioning them about the risks.

Some of them even didn’t know that they were in the under risk category as most of the people were unscreened, undiagnosed and, worse still, unaware of the fact that they were not supposed to consume such rice.

Citing the recent field visits to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the two organisations said that there were no steps taken to screen the people in high risk areas.

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