Wednesday, 11 SEPTEMBER 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Swati S Bhadauria, stressed on the importance of children consuming deworming medicine on time in order to stay fit and healthy. She said this during a programme organised here on Tuesday to commemorate National Deworming Day. During this programme, deworming medicines were administered to students and children were educated about the significance of health and hygiene.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhadauria emphasised the importance of National Deworming Day while also referring to the government schemes and programmes aimed at improving the health of children. She explained the detrimental effects of worm infection and stressed the need for all children to take medicines on time and adopt hygienic habits. Bhadauria highlighted the commitment of the NHM and Health department to enhancing the health of children and adolescents. The Health department’s aim is to provide quality health services to reduce diseases, infections, and mortality, she added.
Bhadauria stated that National Deworming Day is a crucial step in creating a healthy generation of children, which contributes to the physical and mental well-being of individuals.
Additionally, NHM officials informed that the ‘National Deworming Day Programme’ has been running in all districts for the past eight years and the sixteenth phase of the programme has been organised. The primary goal of this programme is to treat worm infections in the stomachs of all children aged between one and 19 years and to improve their health and nutrition. In this phase of National Deworming Day, the target is to administer deworming medicine to 37.29 lakh children and adolescents through about 23,000 private and government schools and 20,000 Anganwadi centres.
The officials further added that since almost all children aged between one and 19 years are enrolled in government and private schools, colleges, other educational institutions, coaching centres and Anganwadi centres, these institutions have a significant role to play. NHM and the Health department have included all state institutions in the National Deworming Day Programme with the goal of freeing all children from worms. The success of the programme relies on the coordination of medicine administration for children in partnership with relevant departments, they added.
