With two-third of children up to the age of 5 years suffering from anaemia in Punjab, the state government has decided to introduce special cards for schoolgoing children in the state from next month, which would be updated monthly.

“The cards will have monthly information on the status of whether the children had the required folic acid, vitamin A and deworming. These are the three factors that are causing the high rate of anaemia in the state and need monitoring,” said Satish Chandra, secretary, health, Punjab.

The National Family Health Survey has found that 66 per cent of the children in the state are suffering from anaemia, with the national incidence being 69.5 per cent. Apart from high anaemia among young children, equally disturbing is the reducing total immunisation cover in the state, which has reduced from 72 per cent to 60 per cent when compared with the previous NFHS conducted around seven years ago.

The immunisation for polio has decreased from 84 per cent to 76, DPT-3 has decreased from 82 to 71 per cent and BCG from 89 to 88 per cent.

Blaming the “acute staff crunch” as the probable reason for the declining immunisation rate, Chandra said, “Out of 2,858 sub centres, 511 at the village level did not have auxilliary nursing and midwives (ANMs), who have been recruited only recently. 1,000 sub centres have been identified to have two ANMs instead of one, and at various rural centres, specialists have been appointed.”