Jharkhand will observe National De-worming Day (NDD) on September 4 and administer Albendazole tablets to at least 1.48 crore children across 23 of 24 districts here, Chief Director of Health Services, Dr. VS Das said on Friday in Ranchi.
Addressing media persons at Suchna Bhawan here on Friday, Das said that students in as many as 35162 Government-run and Government aided schools will come under the purview of the campaign. Besides, students in around 8468 private schools will also be administered de-worming drugs during the campaign, he added.
“Besides schools, we are also focusing on Anganwadi centres this year. Over 24 lakh children from the nearly 37000 odd Anganwadi centres will be administered the medicines,” Das said, adding that the Government has decided to administer the medicines to at least 40 lakh such children who do not go to school.
Dr. Ajit Prasad from the Child Health Cell of the Health Department said that the State has appointed 43063 school teachers and 36,865 Anganwadi workers to administer the medicines in accordance with the directives of the Centre. “By now, seven rounds of de-worming drives have been conducted in Jharkhand. This will be the eighth one,” said Prasad.
Dr. AK Mishra of the Child Health Cell said that Albendazole tablets were administered to nearly 1.26 crore children during the de-worming campaign held in the month of February. All the children in the age bracket of one year to 19 years will be administered the tablets, he said, adding that the ones who fail to get the de-worming medicine on September 4 will be administered Albendazole on September 11.
The National De-worming Day (NDD) is an initiative of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to make every child in the country worm free. According to the official website of the ministry, this is one of the largest public health programs reaching large number of children during a short period. According to World Health Organization (WHO), over 24 crore children between the ages of 1 and 14 years are at risk of parasitic intestinal worms in India. Also known as Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH), the disease can be prevented by timely administration of de-worming tablets.
The programme is being implemented through the combined efforts of Department of School Education and Literacy under Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development and
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Urban Development, and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) also provide support to de-worming campaigns.