As many as 3.2 million children between six months and five years are to be administered Vitamin A supplement and deworming tablets as part of a nationwide campaign to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Nutrition Section under the Family Welfare Division of the Department of Health Services, which is responsible for running the campaign, said all necessary preparations for administering the supplement and deworming tablets have been completed.

“We have completed all preparations for the campaign,” said Lila Bikram Thapa, chief of the section. “We request all parents to make sure their children aged between six months and five years get Vitamin A and deworming tablets provided by the government.”

The Vitamin A campaign is largely a success story in Nepal, as it has immensely helped tackle the vitamin deficiency among children, which used to be a major public health problem in the country.

The coverage rate, however, has been declining every year. The programme had in the past registered a record coverage rate of over 94 percent, the highest among health campaigns and programmes in the country. But the coverage declined to 85 percent during the Covid pandemic.

The section estimates that there are around 3.2 million children between six months to five years of age in the 77 districts of the country.

The number of children between one and five years of age is estimated to be around 2.9 million, who will be administered deworming tablets too.

Thapa concedes that the coverage rate was much lower in big cities, metropolises and sub-metropolises, in comparison to remote districts and far-flung villages.

“Reaching out to elite families, the more educated, and families residing in gated colonies and apartments has emerged as one of the major challenges to us,” said Thapa. “They neither give access to female community health volunteers nor listen to them.”

Likewise, the increasing size of the floating population, slum settlements and lack of exact data on such populations are some of the other issues that have affected the vitamin campaign.

The government has been conducting such nationwide campaigns twice a year since 2003—in October and in April.

Officials at the Ministry of Health and Population said that the campaign is still needed, as studies show around 50 percent of children under five years of age are not getting sufficient amounts of Vitamin A from their regular diet.

The campaign will be started at the local level throughout the country.

Vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets were purchased by agencies under the federal and provincial governments. Around 52,000 female health community volunteers will be mobilised in the nationwide campaign. The campaign cost is estimated at Rs50 million.