Our work in India
We have improved child and adolescent health in India for a over decade through close government partnerships.
Through EAII Advisors, our technical partner, over 100 full-time staff support state governments in delivering deworming treatment and iron and folic acid supplementation in schools – and as of 2024, improving access to safe drinking water.
Through our Deworm the World and Equal Vitamin Access programs, we currently support 11 state governments: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. With Safe Water Now, we’re initially supporting two states: Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Our support of the government’s National Deworming Day has helped make it the largest single-day public health program in the world.
We supported the launch of the National Deworming Day program following the success of school-based deworming in a few states where we provided technical assistance. The program rapidly expanded from reaching less than 30 million children in 2014 to over 260 million by 2017 — and continues to reach over 180 million children annually today. Our technical assistance to state governments is highly leveraged through the government investment in deworming, amounting to tens of millions of dollars each year. This long-standing program is having a tremendous impact on the health of children across India; our impact assessments provide evidence of significant declines in worm prevalence.
We expanded our work in India to include iron and folic acid supplementation.
In 2019, at the request of the government, we began providing technical assistance to state governments. India carries 35% of the global anemia burden, with anemia being the second-leading cause of child disability. We helped five state governments in India increase the number of children reached with weekly supplementation by nearly three-fold – to over 35 million – between 2019 and 2023.
We’re supporting India’s largest safe water initiative
By adding water treatment to existing water access infrastructure, governments can provide substantial health benefits at a low additional cost— and we’re helping the Government of India make this a reality. Our water treatment pilot in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, applies insights from our safe water initiatives in Africa to expand chlorination access in India’s rural communities. Our goal is to identify the most effective methods for deploying in-line chlorination across various water systems, ultimately supporting state governments in scaling safe water access to millions in the coming years.
Our programs in India address critical health issues that disproportionately impact impoverished communities. Our interventions reduce these burdens, making children stronger and improving their long-term wellbeing.
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Equal Vitamin Access
Launched
Safe Water Now
Scaled
Our Partners
Through our technical partner, EAII Advisors, Evidence Action supports the implementation of deworming and iron and folic acid supplementation in India in collaboration with government counterparts across 11 states, including their respective Department of Health, Department of Education, and Department of Woman and Child.
On safe water, we partner with the Indian government’s Jal Jeevan Mission and state governments, including their respective departments such as Public Health Engineering Department, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Panchayati Raj & Rural Development to rapidly scale water treatment through chlorination.
