Their services are considered important to provide safe and effective care to village communities.
[1][2][3] In 1973, the Kartar Singh Committee of the Government of India combined the functions of the health services and changed the role of ANMs.
However, only a few states of India have made the ANM course a vocational course at the higher secondary level of schooling.
[1] As per the Rural Health Statistics Bulletin of 2010, there were 147,069 sub-centres functioning in India, which were increased to 152,326 in March 2014.
ANMs use untied fund for buying items needed for sub-centre, such as blood pressure equipment, weighing machine, scales and for cleaning.
ANM-related work includes maternal and child health along with family planning services, health and nutrition education, efforts for maintaining environmental sanitation, immunisation for the control of communicable diseases, treatment of minor injuries, and first aid in emergencies and disasters.