Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmad Khan today said that Health and Education are the two important pillars on which edifice of a strong nation rests adding that ‘our future prominence in the world, in fact, hinges on these two vital ingredients of progress.Addressing public gatherings after laying foundation of two High School Buildings in border villages Dharl and Saroola which would be completed at the total estimated cost of Rs 79.51 lakh, Shabir said the government with the liberal financial support of Central government has positioned ‘health and education’ at the center stage of its development strategy. He said that two core programmes of our development agenda are National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) under which the Centre Government has made massive and unprecedented investments to strengthen and expand health and educational systems in Jammu and Kashmir as well as other parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Health Minister said many new initiatives like Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK), Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK) etc have been rolled out to improve maternal and child health. He said vaccine programme has been expanded by introducing Hepatitis-B and Pentavalent vaccines in the State. The health Minister said that the government is launching a new initiative on children's healthcare called the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) under the National Rural Health Mission in all the districts of the State from next month. He said all children under the age of 18 will be eligible to avail a package of health services under the RBSK. “ Children will be screened for 30 common ailments/ health conditions so that medical intervention at the earliest could be arranged for them “,he said and added that Children will be screened for conditions like Down's Syndrome, congenital cataract, deafness and heart defect, deficiency conditions like anemia, malnutrition and goiter, developmental delays and disabilities like hearing and vision impairments.
The Minister said that J&K Government which will be among the one of the other States to launch this scheme in the State will deploy mobile health teams in every block. The teams will comprise a male and female doctor, a nurse and a pharmacist who will carry out the screening and treatment exercise, he added.The Health Minister further said that while children in the 0-6 age group enrolled in anganwadis will be screened at least twice a year; all children in government schools and in schools aided by the government too will be regularly screened for the conditions under the Scheme. He said newborn children will be also screened for possible birth defects at health facilities where they are delivered.Meanwhile, the Minister inspected several ongoing projects in block Manjakot including construction work on Salehri- Dhar gali via Saroola 6 kms road, which has been taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 4 crore against which so far Rs 1 crore have been spent on this road.