The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Schoolchildren will get smart card: Anbumani

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Sunday, Dec 09, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Schoolchildren will get smart card: Anbumani

Special Correspondent

As part of National School Health programme

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

spreading awareness: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss (second from right), releasing a DVD on squint surgeries and handing over the first copy to S.S. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya, at the inauguration of ‘Synergy 2007’ in Chennai on Saturday. T. S. Surendran, organising chairman, Synergy 2007 (second from left) and Kamalesh, president, Strabismological Society of India, are in the picture.

CHENNAI: All schoolchildren in the country will be provided smart cards as part of the National School Health programme initiated by the Centre, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss said here on Saturday.

A joint project of the ministries of Health and Human Resource Development, the smart card will contain details of the results of the annual health check-up every schoolchild will be subjected to.

The annual investigations will comprise eye, dental check-up, cardiac evaluation and testing for anaemia, Dr. Anbumani said at ‘Synergy ’07,’ the 25th silver jubilee conference of the Strabismological Society of India, hosted by Sankara Nethrayala.

The smart card will be useful to follow-up on every child and offer specialised treatment if required. Dr. Anbumani said the project would be launched in a year’s time.

Commenting on the oft-repeated criticism about the health budget being inadequate, Dr. Anbumani said it was expected that the budgetary allocation under the 11th Five Year Plan would increase substantially.

While during the 10th Five year Plan the health allocation was Rs.45,000 crore, it was likely to be Rs.1,36,000 crore in the upcoming plan period. Of this, Rs.1,500 crore was likely be allotted for the National Blindness Control Programme, with emphasis on creating awareness about squint and the need for correction.

He said one-and-a-half to two per cent of the population had squint and tended to ignore it. Not correcting the condition could lead to lazy eye syndrome of the squint eye and lack of vision.

Last year, under the National Blindness Control Programme two lakh teachers were trained to detect vision defects among children. Around 3.5 crore students were tested and 9.5 lakh of them were found to have problems.

Five lakh children were given free spectacles.

Lauding the National Blindness Control Programme as one of the best implemented by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Anbumani said much of the success could be attributed to the fact that 70 per cent of the work was happening in the private sector.

The prevalence of blindness 20 years ago, about the time the programme was launched, was 1.4 per cent. The initial aim was to reduce it to 0.8 per cent by 2004.

The prevalence today was 1 per cent and efforts must be made to bring it down. The aim was to bring it down to 0.3 per cent by 2020.

He stressed the need to focus on vision problems of senior citizens, diabetic retinopathy and childhood blindness and evolve a coordinated national programme to handle them.

DVD released

Earlier, Dr. Anbumani released a DVD on squint surgeries and handed over the first copy to S.S. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya.

T.S. Surendran, organising chairman, Synergy ’07, urged the Minister to take up the agenda to make India a “Squint free” nation.

Ambylopia

Kamalesh, president, Strabismological Society of India, said strabismus or squint would lead to Ambylopia, defined as a decrease in visual acuity, which affected 3.4 per cent of the population.

Lingam Gopal, chairman, Sankara Nethralaya, provided a report on the ongoing work at the hospital and research institute.

Sumita Agarkar, organising secretary, Synergy ’07, spoke.

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