Delhi school children to get free medical treatment

Updated on: Monday, October 31, 2011

Nearly 14 lakh school children in the city will be provided free medical treatment and health check-ups by Delhi Government under an ambitious scheme which will roll out on Children's Day on November 14.

The scheme was announced by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit while presenting Delhi government's budget for 2011-12 in March and a corpus fund of Rs 100 crore was set up for its implementation.

Dikshit reviewed preparation for launch of the 'Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojana' to provide universal and free health care to children up to the age of 14 years.

Initially, the scheme will be implemented in 100 schools and later it will be extended to the remaining 854 government-run schools.

Under the scheme, the government will prepare comprehensive health profile of all the school children and will keep them in an electronic format.

In the meeting, Dikshit was briefed by Health Minister A K Walia and officials of Education Department about the preparations to implement the scheme.

Officials said Dikshit instructed both Health and Education Ministers to put in place an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure effective implementation of the scheme.

"We want to make this ambitious scheme a grand success which will go a long way in making all school children healthy which will result in making of a healthy society and healthy nation," Dikshit told the meeting.

Chief Secretary P K Tripathi, Health Secretary Anshu Prakash, Finance Secretary D M Sapolia and Director health Services N V Kamath were present at the meeting.

She, particularly, instructed the Health Department to ensure that the proposed health check-up includes medical testing of all possible diseases as well as providing immunisation if required.

Officials said around 117 teams, each consisting of a doctor, nurse and computer data entry operator, are being set up. One team will screen 60 children in a day.

Walia said apart from free general check-up, the government will also take care of children suffering from various diseases, besides providing free medicines.

"We are committed to implementing the scheme in true spirit," he said.

Delhi school children to get free medical treatment

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