Shillong, March 25: The State level launching of the School Health and Wellness Ambassadors Programme held today at the State Convention Centre, Shillong. Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, Shri D. P. Wahlang and Principal Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, Shri Sampath Kumar graced the programme as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively.
During the programme, the Chief Guest and other dignitaries released a book on School Health Activity, posters in local languages and leaflets on School Mental Health Programme. A short film on School Health and Wellness Ambassador was also released by the Chief Guest.
In the concept notes mention that India is home to 253 million adolescents –the largest in the world in terms of absolute numbers and 21% of the world’s total adolescent population, adolescent age 10-19 yrs. in Meghalaya consists of 23 % of the state’s population as per 2011 census.
Adolescents are diverse population groups but share common developmental experiences, such as rapid physical and sexual growth, hormonal changes, new and complex emotions, and an increase in intellectual capacities etc.
There are strong public health, economic, human rights and demographic reasons to invest in their health and the development. Investing in adolescent health will benefit them now, in future as well as the next generation.
Studies have shown that improving the physical, mental and sexual health of adolescents aged 10-19 years, at the cost of Rs. 300 per person per year, could bring a 10-fold economic benefit by averting more than a crore adolescent death and preventing more than 3 crore unwanted pregnancies in adolescents.
More than 33% of the disease burden and almost 60% of premature deaths among adults is shown to be associated with behaviour or conditions that began or occurred during adolescence.
To provide better health outcomes to the adolescent and the young, Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) has moved beyond the programming norms of facility-based interventions to reach adolescents in their own environment, such as schools and community, and at the same time focusing on their influencers and caregivers.
Ayushman Bharat School Health & Wellness Programme launched in 2020 provides convergence of health and education providers to address the needs via comprehensive preventive and promotive health education programme at school for children.
Teachers (the most influential figure for students) play the important part of “Health and Wellness Ambassadors (HWAs)” who will impart health and wellness education to the students.
This programme will be rolled out in a phased manner covering lakhs of educational institutions across the country. Currently, it aims to cover 1.18 Lakh schools in the first year to create more than 2 lakh HWAs. (Meghalaya targets 2109 schools and 4218 school health and wellness ambassadors in 5 Districts in Phase 1&2)
In Meghalaya , as per the MOTHER App all districts are registering high teenage deliveries above 10% and high percentage of home deliveries. In order to support the Rescue Mission, School Health and Wellness Ambassadors will help fosters the growth and development of students and adolescents, improve educational achievement of students by promoting their health and wellbeing.
The health promotion and prevention is a key strategy under School Health Programme to respond to the diverse, changing needs of students, the use of Sanitary Napkins between the age of 15 to 49, in Meghalaya 63% in India 57.%. In Anemia on the age 15-49, Meghalaya 56% for women and 32.4% for men, in India 53.1% for Women and 22.1% for men.
In early marriage at the age of in Meghalaya at the age of 17 and in India 26.5, the teenage pregnancy between the of 15 to 19, in Meghalaya 8.9 and in India 7.9, use in Tobacco between the age of 15 to 49, in Meghalaya 32% are women and 72% are men in India 6.8% are women and 44.5% are men, Alcohol use, between the age of 15 to 49 in Meghalaya 2% are women and 44% are men, in India 1.2 Women and 29% are men.
At the national level the programme was launched by Prime Minister on 14th April 2018 at the national Level for the School Health Programme, this has has five components, Health Promotion and Prevention activities, Around two million teachers will be trained on a curriculum to transact health promotion and disease prevention information in the form of interesting activities for one hour every week.
These trained teachers, two from every school, will be called Health and Wellness Ambassadors and the curriculum is being called Health & Wellness Curriculum. Health Screening: The screening of children will be continued for 30 identified health conditions for early detection, free treatment and management through dedicated Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) mobile health teams
Provision of Services: Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets, Albendazole administration will be provided by teachers through Anaemia Mukt Bharat and National Deworming Day (NDD) programme respectively. Provision of Sanitary Napkins and appropriate vaccination will also be considered Electronic Health Records: Electronic health records for each child, Upgrading skills of emergency care: Training on basic first aid for the teachers
A graded Health and Wellness Curriculum has been prepared under the leadership of NCERT in consultation with a technical working group which comprised of representatives for MHRD, MoHFW, UNICEF, UNFPA, JHPIEGO and other agencies having the expertise of working with adolescents. It was launched at national level in Feb 2020. The program has 21 SRG members in the state.
For optimal and efficient use of resources, the existing initiatives in school education have been harmonized. Eleven themes have been finalized for the curriculum which includes growing up healthy, gender equality, inter-personal relationships, value education, social media and six themes of RKSK.
The program will be initiated from standard 6th -12 onwards in the first phase of implementation in Ri Bhoi district, and class 9-12 in West Garo Hill, South West Garo Hill, West Khasi Hill, and South West Khasi Hill. Second phase will cover class 6-8 in these districts.
