Govt schools will now be able to track the growth of a child for any kind of health anomaly and alert parents

The government will now be able to track the growth of a child from six to 18 years of age as the education department will have details on the four Ds of all kids in government schools birth defects, deficiencies, diseases, and developmental disorders.

The screening of children in 59,000 government-aided schools has already begun where their height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure and risk for developing non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension has been assessed. Their eyesight and hearing are also checked, and glasses and hearing aids are recommended for those in need.

An army of 430 mobile health teams comprising 815 AYUSH doctors, seven MBBS doctors, 388 staff nurses, 256 ophthalmic assistants and 61 pharmacists under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) of the health department's National Health Mission will do health checkups of 65 lakh students in schools and 48 lakh children in anganwadis.

Their parents and school headmistress will receive alerts on which day the child should visit primary health centres or specialist hospitals for more serious problems.

A Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan official who refused to be named said, "Till now, the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) had the student profile that had the academic status of the student. We have provided logins for the mobile health teams and the testing has already been done in Kolar."

"Called Swasthya Kiran, primary health centres have already been mapped for each school. 18,000 unaided schools and 59,000 government-aided schools will be covered. The Chief Minister will shortly formally launch it," the official added.

Dr Veena V, Deputy Director, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, said, "Every Saturday will be observed as 'Swasthya Din'. Two doctors, one staff nurse, and one ophthalmic assistant will assess the child. For example, if the child is obese, he or she can be counselled along with parents for lifestyle changes and nutritional plan can be given. The system will show what the power of the child was the previous year in cases of short sight so we can know if it is increasing."

"If it is major problems like congenital heart disease or if one requires neurosurgery then we can refer the child to a super-specialty hospital or if government hospitals are not equipped to deal with it, we can refer to any private hospital empanelled with Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka universal health scheme. Apart from primary, secondary and high schools, we will reach out to PU Colleges as well," she added.