Rastriya Bala Swastha Karyakramam, a failure scheme

Rastriya Bala Swastha Karyakramam, a failure scheme
x
Highlights

The Central government sponsored health scheme Rastriya Bala Swastha Karyakramam (RBSK) for school going children and college students has failed in achieving its goal. The scheme was launched in 2014 and conducting regular medical checkups for the students of Class I to Class X and junior colleges. 

Srikakulam: The Central government sponsored health scheme Rastriya Bala Swastha Karyakramam (RBSK) for school going children and college students has failed in achieving its goal. The scheme was launched in 2014 and conducting regular medical checkups for the students of Class I to Class X and junior colleges.

Under the RBSK, medical checkups conducted at the government and government aided schools and colleges across the district. As per available statistics from the medical and education departments, total students studying in government and its aided schools and colleges are more than three lakh.

“For recruitment of doctors under RBSK, notifications were issued twice since its introduction in 2014. As per norms, 36 teams have to be formed under the scheme. Each team comprises two MBBS doctors one should be female, one pharmacist and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM).

Both allopathic and ayurvedic, yoga, unani, siddah and homeo (AYUSH) doctors are required under the scheme out of total 72 sanctioned doctors posts under the scheme, 54 are allopathic and 18 are AYUSH category.

Salary offered for doctors under the scheme is not attractive particularly for allopathic. For doctors on a contract basis in other wings are drawing Rs 52,500 per month while under RBSK, the offered salary is Rs 30,000 which is low when compared to other wings. As a result, not even a single allopathic doctor joined duties but under AYUSH category nine doctors joined.

Due to non-joining of allopathic doctors, RBSK failed in its implementation. As a result, primary health centres (PHC) doctors and their staff are conducting medical tests at schools in their respective areas on every Thursday which is burden and not having sufficient time to conduct all tests on students.

“We identified 30 different types of diseases among 8,000 students from the government and government aided educational institutions across the district through regular PHC staff”, RBSK district coordinator Dr Menda Praveen told The Hans India. “We sent proposals to the government for enhancement of salaries under RBSK to attract doctors”, he added.

By Chowdari Lakshmana Rao

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENTS