MoHFW and Ministry of Tribal Affairs sign an MoU for extending services of School Health Programme

Newdelhi:10/8/18;A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Government of India  for cooperation between the two Ministries for sensitizing the principals and training to teachers each of all functional EMRSs, Ashram Schools and other Schools supported by MoTA in the country using the existing infrastructure of MoTA in the states. The MoU covers various activities including extending all aspects of the School Health Program viz., providing weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation, biannual de-worming, basic first aid and health promotion activities through teachers designated as Health and Wellness Ambassadors at the school level in all functional EMRSs, Ashram Schools and other Schools supported by MoTA in the states. Ensuring quality training of Master Trainer and District Level Trainers and periodically reviewing the status of implementation as per the guidelines of School Health Programme. Issuing the required directives to the States where EMRSs, Ashram Schools and other Schools supported by MoTA are functional to extend all assistance to MoHFW for sensitization of principals and training of Teachers, allocating and disbursing the required funds to the States for sensitization of principals and training of Teachers and organizing School Health Programme activities within its existing schemes and issuing necessary instructions to the States with EMRSs, Ashram Schools and other schools supporting by MoTA for reporting of activities as per the formats given in the School Health Programme with the indicated periodicity to MoHFW are some of the other activities covered under the MoU.

An Expert Committee on Tribal Health was constituted jointly by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Government of India in the year 2013 under the Chairmanship of Dr. Abhay Bang to primarily look into the present status of health and health care in tribal areas and ascertain the reasons for the gaps in both health status and health care in tribal areas, and also to draw out a road map for the future to bridge the gap rapidly.  The Expert Committee has presented its report to the Government of India .  The report has been prepared on the basis of extensive studies made after extensive data collected on various aspects of tribal health over the four-year period. By way of affirmative action, the M/o Health and Family Welfare, in collaboration with Ministry of Tribal Affairs propose to extend health screening services through its School Health Programme component under Ayushman Bharat through Rashtriya Bal Swasthaya Karyakram (RBSK) for betterment of health of the Scheduled Tribes including the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).