Delhi govt begins drive to deworm kids

As part of the government’s Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojna, the initiative to deworm city’s 40 lakh pre-school, school and school-dropout children was launched by chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday.

As part of the government’s Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojna, the initiative to deworm city’s 40 lakh pre-school, school and school-dropout children was launched by chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday.

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The Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojna was introduced last year in November to provide health check-ups and free treatment to students studying in Delhi government, New Delhi Municipal Council, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Cantonment Board schools.

There will be a mop-up exercise on February 27, wherein the tablets will be given to those children who were left out on the first day. The exercise will be repeated six months later.

Describing the programme as a sincere effort to enhance nutritional growth and educational achievements of children, Dikshit appealed to all stakeholders to make Tuesday’s ‘De-worming Day’ a grand success.

The government decided to launch the programme after the study found that health of a sizeable number of school children had been badly affected by prevalence of soil-transmitted worms in their bodies.