From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: With the coming New Year, nearly two lakh school children in Government run institutions in Meghalaya will be screened for three Ds – deficiency, disease and disability as part of the largest ever exercise undertaken by the Union Health Ministry.
The ministry will soon start a massive screening and treatment programme that will cover 22 crore children between 6 and 18 years in 11 lakh government-run institutions across 15 states of the country including Meghalaya, official sources said.
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently sanctioned Rs 383 crore for 2012-13 and also set up 2,414 dedicated teams at block levels to conduct the school health programme (SHP) under the aegis of the flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
SHP will undertake biannual health service provision through screening, healthcare and referral to look for anemia and assess the nutritional status of children, besides testing their visual acuity and hearing skills.
Conducting dental check-up and evaluating common skin diseases, heart defects, physical disabilities, learning disorders and behaviorial problems will also be the programme’s priority.
Basic medicine kit to take care of common ailments prevalent among young school-going children and referral for service connectivity from primary till super-specialist health facilities will be undertaken. Supplementation like fixed day immunization, weekly supervised indigestion of iron folate tablets, administration of vitamin A and de-worming will also be conducted, it added.
SHP will protect and promote the health of human capital from the beginning. It is universally known that healthy students are more receptive to education, which naturally, influences their scholastic attainment. Around 15 states have…. positioned dedicated teams for SHP.
Once the dedicated teams are optimally operational, the ministry plans to include pre-school children through anganwadi centres under “SHP Plus”. Efforts are on for tying up with medical colleges so that children found deficient – physically or mentally – during screening can be given referral support there for free.
The teams will be headed by Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) doctors along with three other paramedics. Every block will have to have at least one team. In total 39 teams will screen 1.79 lakh children in Meghalaya alone.
Health clubs and health cabinets will also be introduced in government and government-aided schools. First aid room/corners/clinics with support from education department attended by trained staffs and connectivity with public health infrastructure will be established and physical education and activities will be popularized, the sources added.