The school health programme would now be operated under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. An informal announcement regarding it was made during an online conference by the officials of the government of India on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, the joint secretary, health and family welfare department, government of India Manohar Agnani and joint secretary Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, S K Yadav said that the school health programme would now be operated under joint aegis of the MHRD and health department. Agnani said that the good health and life skills are important components for ensuring overall development of school children. The children can develop better life skills only when they enjoy good health.
For the programme, the department of medical health and family welfare has constituted a resource group. The officers of the government of India started a training session for this resource group on the day. In the programme seven officers of health and 31 representatives of the education department would get training on various aspects of the programme. The training would culminate on August 1. It is worth mentioning here that India has 47.3 Crore children in the age group 0-18 years and 26 Crore children between six to 18 years are in schools. Experts believe that investing in the health of children would help in the social and economic development of the nation.