Climate crisis and food insecurity are driving anemia in India

Shalini Sonavane collapsed late last year while cleaning the floor of her house in the early hours. The 36-year-old farmworker from Bhadole village in India’s Maharashtra state had suffered a sudden fall in blood pressure, and her hemoglobin was just 4 grams per deciliter, a level considered severely anemic.

Her medical tests revealed anemia, a condition in which the blood has lower red cells and hemoglobin. Other symptoms include headache, irregular heartbeat, swelling of hands and feet, tiredness, and loss of appetite.

During that November, she spent 12,000 Indian rupees ($144) on 14 intravenous iron sucrose and medicines, after which her hemoglobin increased to 5.5 grams per deciliter, still quite low. “Every day I would feel tired, but still was unable to sleep for three months and didn’t feel like eating anything, which made me weaker,” Sonavane, who earns the equivalent of just $36 a month, told Devex.