The decision to drop haemoglobin measurement from the planned National Family Health Survey-6 is premised on the flawed argument that the capillary blood haemoglobin measurements overestimate the prevalence of anaemia. As long as the extent and direction of any discrepancy between capillary versus venous blood haemoglobin measurements are known, a reasonable estimate of the prevalence of the disease can be arrived at, as is done with many screening and diagnostic tests. Anaemia continues to be a major public health problem; a break with past practice will create a barrier in assessing the effectiveness of health programmes or planning future........

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