Government school students to get a special health card

New Delhi: Under an initiative of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, a special health card will be issued to the students of government schools by the government.

The health card will have the information of the students on the basis of their age. It will have their medical history including weight, their diseases, if any, and treatment of those diseases.

An official from the ministry said: "Health cards will be distributed among the students of all government schools. It will have complete health records of students. This includes immunization records, biennial examinations, health issues since birth, diseases and issues related to their development along with a list of current disorders among children and their initial diagnostics."

The health card has been issued to 12 lakh students of various government schools in Jammu & Kashmir.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal 'Nishank' and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan met on Monday to discuss about the health of the students.

Nishank said: "Teachers are the best guides of children and now they will also work as ambassadors of health for them. They will organise an hour long session every week for 24 weeks, where important information will be shared with the students through cultural activities. This will be implemented in secondary, higher secondary and intermediate schools. In other districts, this will be implemented from next year."

Training modules and syllabus for Nodal Teachers have been prepared by the HRD Ministry and the Health Ministry, with the help of the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal - 3.

The HRD Minister expressed the hope that this will help the students to perform well on the academic front as well as keep them healthy so that they will develop skills to deal with the situations they will face in their life.

The NCERT has developed the 24-hour curriculum and prepared nodal teachers in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The curriculum includes 11 identified topics like being healthy, emotional strength and mental health, interpersonal relationship values and responsible citizens, gender equality, nutrition, health and cleanliness, promotion of healthy lifestyle, drug prevention and ther misuse management, reproductive health, HIV prevention, health violence and wound protection, safe use of Internet, media and social media.