Tamil Nadu: Students to create immunisation awareness among 1 crore families

CHENNAI: A project under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) or National Child Welfare Scheme to create awareness about immunisation among one crore families through school students was launched by Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Monday.

As part of the programme, the minister also launched three new mobile medical teams in Chennai, Chengalpattu, and Kancheepuram districts to screen school students.

This project detects 30 types of diseases, including congenital defects, nutritional deficiencies, diseases, and developmental delays at an early stage and refers children in need of further treatment to the district early intervention centres for medical and surgical treatment. Three vehicles have been handed over to this project at present.

As part of this project, 72.59 lakh children out of 1.45 crore children from birth to 18 years of age are being examined through RBSK. The project is already being carried out by a total of 805 groups, which include 770 medical teams across the state and 35 in urban areas. As a result of 67.23 lakh examinations, children with certain defects and malnutrition have been identified, and further treatment has been provided to them.

Through the scheme, a total of 50.76 lakh school students studying from class 6 to 12 in 16,566 government and government-aided schools will be provided training on immunization by medical officers once in three months.

This training will be in the form of group discussions, educational videos, quiz competitions, as well as awareness about hand washing, food safety, daily exercise, yoga, and timely medical check-ups.

Awareness about health and life skills is being created for adolescents to enhance their decision-making skills, problem-solving ability, effective use of social media, emotional regulation, stress management, and ability to create healthy relationships.