Police to train youngsters in primary health care to deal with possible third Covid wave

Hundreds of youngsters will be trained as primary health-care workers over the next few weeks under the Delhi Police’s YUVA initiative to ready them for a possible third wave of Covid-19, Delhi Police said Tuesday

Hundreds of youngsters will be trained as primary health-care workers over the next few weeks under the Delhi Police’s YUVA initiative to ready them for a possible third wave of Covid-19, Delhi Police said Tuesday. These youngsters will be trained as nursing care assistants, emergency medical technicians, home care assistants and ambulance drivers, among others.

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“The first batch of 55 youngsters already began receiving training in the north Delhi district from Saturday. We are going to have the youth receive health-care training at most of our 23 YUVA skill centres over the next few days,” said Chinmoy Biswal, Delhi Police spokesperson.

Launched in 2017, the Delhi Police’s YUVA initiative has been arranging for employment skills to be imparted to youngsters at police stations so that they stay away from crime. According to the police, 20,000 youngsters have been trained to become skilled in a trade ranging from beauticians to technicians.

Devesh Srivastava, special commissioner heading the initiative, said while health care was one of the many skills imparted to them, now it is being scaled up. “We will soon have at least a few hundred trained youngsters over the next few weeks and months to deal with a possible third wave of the pandemic,” he said.

Anro Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (north), said help from health-care organisations and laboratories was sought to train the youngsters. “It is a mix of theoretical as well as practical knowledge,” said Alphonse.

Dr Dashvinder Singh, who is associated with NGO Sewa Bharti, which is involved in the training work in north district, said the need for “nursing care assistants” was felt during the second wave.

“Patients had oxygen cylinders, but they didn’t know how to use them. We needed people to help with testing oxygen levels, collecting blood samples and reading blood pressure levels, but we were short of hands. The youth we are training will be crucial in coordinating between patients, doctors and nurses,” said Singh.

He said that since a large number of these YUVA youngsters will also be trained as home care assistants. “These youngsters can help us deal with the crisis and go on to make a career in health care,” said Singh.

Shivani Santosh Kumar, a 20-year-old woman undergoing training and living in Majnu Ka Tilla, said in the first three days, she learnt a few basics of nursing.

She is undergoing seven days of initial training and she decides to pursue it further, she’ll be trained at a hospital. “The immediate focus is on a possible third wave of Covid-19, bur I am also looking at a future in the health-care industry,” Shivani said.

On Monday, the police commissioner, SN Srivastava, coordinated with a host of stakeholders who will be helping with the training and placement of the youngsters.