The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rise in illness among poor school kids

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Rise in illness among poor school kids

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 26. More cases of students falling ill are being reported from primary schools of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi now than at any other time in the past. Nearly 10 lakh students, most of them from the economically weaker sections of society, study in the 1,800-odd schools run by the civic body.

A "cause for worry" for the city health experts is the significant increase in the number of students being anaemic and suffering from malnutrition, which has had a considerable impact on the "overall health" of the poor students. The MCD has a special School Health Service whose mandate is to provide health care facilities and ensure the healthy growth of municipal students.

While the MCD is still compiling data of recent months, officials said as against a little over 17,700 anaemic students in 2002, the figures has jumped to over 40,000 in 2003. Similarly, the number of students suffering from malnutrition increased to more than 13,600 in 203 from about 8,150 in the previous year. Initial health check up of the students has revealed that the figures for this year are much more.

Indicating that an increasing number of students are falling ill, officials said more than a lakh of them were referred to hospitals and dispensaries for further treatment in 2003, while in the previous year it was just 53,282. Most of these cases have been reported from schools in the rural Najafgarh Zone and West Zone.

In 2003, the number of students suffering from avitaminosis increased to 11,517 from 6,129 in 2002, officials said. Similarly, the number of students having problem with their eye has increased from just 14,707 in 2001 to 22,185 in 2003. Among other diseases which have registered a significant increase among municipal students during the past few years are respiratory diseases (1,752 in 2001 to 4,093 in 2003), worm infestations (from 15,000 in 2002 to over 46,000 in 2003), alimentary diseases (from 1,986 in 2002 to 3,649 in 2003).

Even the number of students suffering from tuberculosis has increased from 45 in 2002 to 83 in 2003, officials said. "Of these, as many as 58 were reported from the Central Zone alone," he added. A majority of these children, officials said, were either from the slums or resettlement colonies or the unauthorised colonies.

"Due to their poor economic condition, their families cannot afford a complete healthy diet for them. They manage to provide only two meals a day. Further, they live in unhygienic conditions. Rarely can any of them afford milk. All this, has had an adverse impact on the health of the students," another health official said.

The mid-day meal scheme, the child health expert pointed out, has also not been able to improve the health of the students. "The manner in which it is being cooked and then distributed to students requires a lot of improvement so that mid-day meal could play an important role in healthy growth of our students," he said.

Figures compiled by the MCD revealed that while the maximum number of anaemic cases (15,625), dental diseases (15,182), eye diseases (5,363) and respiratory diseases were reported from Najafgarh Zone, most of the malnutrition cases were reported from the trans-Yamuna area.

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