Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 22: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad has approved launch of newly rolled out Central scheme in three districts of Jammu and Kashmir on pilot basis in order to ensure comprehensive care to all the children by way of screening and early intervention services. The scheme christened as Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) will be extended to other districts of the State in a phased manner during the next some months.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, a ‘Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services’ Programme under National Rural Health Mission initiated by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the month of July this year to provide comprehensive care to all the children, has been extended to three districts of J&K—Leh, Ganderbal and Rajouri on the directions of Mr Azad.
The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister has also announced that later the scheme will be extended to all other districts of the State in a phased manner in order to improve the overall quality of life of children through early detection of birth defects, diseases, deficiencies and development delays including disabilities.
“The high burden of these childhood ill health contributes significantly to child mortality, morbidity and out of pocket expenditure of the poor families”, sources said. For the Ganderbal district, funds to the tune of Rs 100.59 lakh have been approved under the scheme while as an amount of Rs 131.22 lakh has been sanctioned for Rajouri district. For Leh district, an amount of Rs 89.42 lakh has been approved under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram.
In response to a question, sources said that Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services envisage to cover 30 identified health conditions for early detection, free treatment and management through dedicated mobile health teams.
“The teams will carry out screening of all the children in the pre-school age enrolled at Anganwadi Centres at least twice a year besides screening all the children studying in Government and Government aided schools once a year”, sources disclosed, adding “newborns will be screened for birth defects in health facilities by service providers and during the home visits by ASHAs”.
Under the scheme, District Early Intervention Centres will be set up as first referral point for further investigation, treatment and management. Tertiary care centre would be roped in for management of complicated cases requiring high-end medical care and treatment. “The services aim to cover all children of 0-6 years of age group in rural areas and urban slums, in addition to older children up to 18 years of age enrolled in classes 1st to 12th in Government and Government aided schools”, sources added.
Stating that Dedicated Mobile Health Teams and District Early Intervention Centers are the major components of RBSK, sources said, “to begin with each block will have two dedicated mobile health teams comprising of two Medical Officers (AYUSH), one ANM/Staff Nurse and one Pharmacist with proficiency in computer for data management”.
About the implementation mechanism, sources said that there will be facility level screening at delivery points, community level screening by ASHAs, screening at Anganwadi centres by Mobile Block Health teams for birth defects, deficiencies, diseases and development delays including disabilities and then screening at schools.
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