Ludhiana, May 14 -- The local health department is facing a severe shortage of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), forcing those on duty to cater to twice or thrice the number of people an ANM is supposed to cater as per the rules, say staff members.

According to an assement by the local health officials in 2017-2018, after the National Health Mission (NHM) in 2014 prescribed that there must be a ANM against every 10,000 people, it was found that the city has roughly a population of 18-20 lakh and as such would require 196 ANMs. However, at the moment, there are only around 60 ANMs in the various urban primary health centres (UPHCs) in the district.

The Giaspura UPHC caters to around one lakh people but no ANM is available there at present...