Jharkhand, which is confronted with a high prevalence of anaemia among women and children, has decided to embark on an ambitious mission to eradicate it from the state.

On Wednesday, chief minister Hemant Soren along with state health minister Banna Gupta launched "anaemia kits" to be distributed for free to 10 lakh women and children suffering from malnutrition and anaemia.

“We are on a mission to eradicate anaemia from the state and as part of this mission, the chief minister and the health minister launched the anaemia kit. The kits contain homoeopathy medicine to increase haemoglobin levels,” director of Ayush in Jharkhand, Dr Fazlus Sami, said.

Ayush is an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy and is a department under the Union health ministry.

The Ayush official said the kits would be distributed even in the remotest of blocks in Jharkhand through health and wellness centres.

"Malnutrition is prevalent mostly in the remotest part of the state and we will be arranging distribution of the anaemia kits in such areas through the health and wellness centres. With the recruitment of a large number of Ayush doctors and health officers, the distribution would gain momentum. We will be holding a meeting next week to plan out the distribution of the kits on a mission mode,” Dr Sami said.

The high prevalence of anaemia among women and children continues to be a major worry according to the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 (2020-21).

Nearly 67.5 per cent of children aged between five months and five years were anaemic according to the NFHS report. Around 65.5 per cent children living in rural areas and 67.9 per cent in urban areas were found to be anaemic. Of all the expecting mothers, 67.5 per cent have been found to be anaemic. Anaemia among women aged between 15 and 49 years was found to be 65.3 per cent.

Hemant, who gave away appointment letters to 173 medical officers and 296 Ayush community health officers at the RIMS auditorium in Ranchi on Wednesday evening, said: "From today, you are an extension of the government. Be it the people of rural areas or the people of urban areas, the responsibility of protecting their health is now in your hands while the government will look after your interest.”

The chief minister also reminded the newly appointed health workers not to shy away from challenges they might face in remote areas of the state.

“I have full faith that you would discharge your duties with dedication, determination and complete honesty. The responsibility of protecting the health of poor people is on your shoulders,” Hemant said.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister inaugurated the academic building on the RIMS campus, a bi-plane cathlab for the cardiology department and a single-plane cathlab and 4D ECHO and 128 SLICE CT for the radiology department.