Rising heatwaves are intensifying an anaemia crisis among India’s women

Radha Kumari fell unconscious while working in her field one day. The 36 year old farmer was rushed to hospital, where tests found that her haemoglobin count was 4.5 g/dL, well below what Indian doctors consider the normal range of 11 g/dL.“Doctors told me that I’m severely anaemic and if that’s not taken care of urgently it might threaten my life,” says Radha, who lives in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh province in northern India. It was a frightening situation for her whole family, as her farming work supports her two young children.Radha is among around 560 million Indian women—two of every three women in the country—who are classified as having iron deficiency anaemia. Yet many ignore the symptoms. She says that she’d been continuously feeling tired since April, even after a normal six to seven hours of sleep. She also complained of severe headaches and swelling in her hands…
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