P.P. Naolekar, C.J.

1. The Director of Health Services, Assam undertook a programme of administering Vitamin-A to the children of the age group of 1 to 5 years initially in the year 1999. The third round in the third phase of the said programme was carried out through out the State on 11.11.2001 in the financial and logistic support of UNICEF. A target of 31,74,278 numbers of children within one group of 1 to 5 years was laid down for the programme on 11.11.2001. The main objectives of the programme were-

i) to reduce blindness,

ii) to lower the risk of death in a child by 23 percent,

iii) to reduce malaria attack by 40 percent,

iv) to reduce mortality from diarrhoea by 40 percent,

v) to reduce fatality death from measles,

vi) protection from diseases and infection for growth and development of children.

The programme for 11.11.2001 was designated as the third round of the third phase of pulse Vitamin-A campaign. The first phase of this campaign had been earlier conducted only in the districts of Kamrup and Barpeta on 24th October, 99 as a pilot project. The second phase of the said campaign was conducted on 26th March, 2000 in the districts of Kamrup, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur