The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Personal, environmental hygiene project launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 01, 2007
ePaper


<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT>

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Personal, environmental hygiene project launched

Staff Reporter

To sensitise the community about health care

Thiruvananthapuram: The Personal and Environmental Hygiene and Development (PEHD) project, a community-based programme being implemented in 50 select panchayats in the district by the Child Development Centre (CDC), Medical College, was formally dedicated to people at a function here on Wednesday.

The project is part of the CDC's attempts to sensitise the community about health care, including pre-school and adolescent care.

Already over 6,000 people, including anganwadi workers, Kudumbasree volunteers, literacy workers, health workers and members of local bodies, are involved in the training programmes, which focus on the importance of maintaining environmental hygiene; teaching children, especially adolescents, about personal hygiene; need for pre-marital counselling for adolescents; and parenting as well as adolescent health care issues.

Mridul Eapen, member, State Planning Board, said personal and environment hygiene issues were again becoming important in the backdrop of recent outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases in the State.

Anganwadi workers were key links in the implementation of community-based health care programmes and the problems faced by them in continuing their work in the changing socio-economic milieu were being studied by the Planning Board, she said.

Dr. Eapen suggested that more community-based intervention be carried out to expand the social space for children and adolescents. More opportunities should be created for children for better social interaction so that they could overcome their social inadequacies, she said.

CDC director M.K.C Nair, who led the session on adolescent care, said various studies conducted by the CDC had showed that almost 50 per cent of the adolescents in the State were malnourished. At the other extreme, obesity among children was also emerging as a major concern.

Director of Medical Education Meenu Hariharan and Deputy Collector M. Nandakumar spoke.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section