Health experts are calling for the reinstatement of double-fortified salt in Odisha’s school meals to address the ongoing crisis of anaemia among children, amid concerns over policy implementation gaps and nutritional strategies.
Health experts are urging Odisha to bring back double-fortified salt in school meals as concern grows over persistent anaemia among children and the gap between policy and practice.
Double-fortified salt, which supplies both iron and iodine, has long been seen as a low-cost way to strengthen the nutritional value of meals served under the PM POSHAN school feeding programme. The appeal comes as anaemia remains widespread in the state, especially in rural areas, where National Family Health Survey-5 data cited by local health advocates put the rate at about 65 per cent among children.
Dr Ashok Acharya, director of Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital, said the intervention should not be left out of a meal system used every day by schoolchildren. He argued that if anaemia is still a serious nutritional problem, there is little justification for allowing an established fortification measure to fall away because of administrative drift.
Odisha had previously ordered the mandatory use of double-fortified salt in school meals, first in a School and Mass Education Department notification in July 2016 and again in a communication in February 2021. But health experts say the practice has not continued consistently since the change of government, with district officials reportedly saying they have not received fresh instructions to keep using it.
The question now extends beyond nutrition policy to procurement and administration. At a Programme Approval Board meeting of the Union education ministry in February 2024, Odisha said pulses, double-fortified salt and fortified oil were being bought centrally through the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation for PM POSHAN. If that system is no longer functioning as described, experts say the state should make the position clear and ensure that children receive the fortified ingredients the programme is meant to provide.
The concern comes against a broader backdrop of efforts by Odisha to clean up school meal menus. In June 2025, the state government ordered schools to stop using refined sugar in PM POSHAN meals and urged the use of jaggery only in limited quantities, while also calling for reduced salt use as part of healthier eating guidance. That shift reflects a wider focus on diet quality, but health workers say it should sit alongside, not replace, proven measures to reduce iron deficiency.
Anaemia in children is linked to poor growth, weaker learning outcomes and slower development, making the issue especially serious in a school setting. For that reason, health experts say Odisha’s next step should be straightforward: restore uninterrupted supply of double-fortified salt wherever it is required and close the gap between the state’s policy commitments and what children actually eat at school.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
