Dehradun: The state health department launched a special immunization drive on Monday to cover children of 3,109 villages under 370 sub-centres where there are no auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs).ANMs are tasked with implementing several health schemes of the government and creating awareness among locals. In the absence of these workers, most of the benefits do not reach remote villages.According to data provided by the health department, 370 sub-centres across the state are lying vacant and they cater to those in 3,109 villages. The worst-hit is chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s own district – Pauri. As many as 71 sub-centres covering 812 villages lie vacant here. This is followed by Dehradun with 54 vacant sub-centres covering 418 villages. Tehri has 51 vacant sub-centres covering 261 villages.Incidentally, Pauri and Tehri are also among top three priority districts of health department, due to their skewed health parameters like infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality rate (MMR).Archana Shrivastava, DG of health and family welfare department, said, “Safeguarding each and every child from diseases is our top priority. Hence, we have launched a special drive to ensure 100% coverage.”Dr Saroj Naithani, state nodal officer for immunization programme, said, “We aim to increase the immunization coverage of under-five children to at least 99% by November. This will help in improving the health parameters. While the special drive is being conducted across the state, the focus will be on those areas where the sub-centres are lying vacant. It is highly likely that the children in these areas may have been left out of the earlier vaccination programmes.”

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