Organisation : Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Scheme Name : Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram - RBSK

Home Page : http://nrhm.gov.in
Details Here : http://nrhm.gov.in/nrhm-components/r...ackground.html
Terms & Conditions : http://www.indianjobtalks.com/uploads/76119-RBSK.pdf

Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram :
** Under National Rural Health Mission, significant progress has been made in reducing mortality in children over the last seven years (2005-12). Whereas there is an advance in reducing child mortality there is a dire need to improving survival outcome. This would be reached by early detection and management of conditions that were not addressed comprehensively in the past.

** According to March of Dimes (2006), out of every 100 babies born in this country annually, 6 to 7 have a birth defect. This would translate to around 17 lakhs birth defects annually in the country and accounts for 9.6% of all the newborn deaths. Various nutritional deficiencies affecting the preschool children range from 4 per cent to 70 per cent.

Developmental delays are common in early childhood affecting at least 10 percent of the children. These delays if not intervened timely may lead to permanent disabilities including cognitive, hearing or vision impairment. Also, there are group of diseases common in children viz. dental caries, rheumatic heart disease, reactive airways diseases etc.

Early detection and management diseases including deficiencies bring added value in preventing these conditions to progress to its more severe and debilitating form and thereby reducing hospitalization and improving implementation of Right to Education.

** Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) is an important initiative aiming at early identification and early intervention for children from birth to 18 years to cover 4 ‘D’s viz. Defects at birth, Deficiencies, Diseases, Development delays including disability.

Target age group :
The services aim to cover children of 0-6 years of age in rural areas and urban slums in addition to children enrolled in classes 1st to 12th in Government and Government aided Schools. It is expected that these services will reach to about 27 crores children in a phased manner.

The broad category of age group and estimated beneficiary is as shown below in the table. The children have been grouped in to three categories owing to the fact that different sets of tools would be used and also different set of conditions could be prioritized.

Health conditions to be screened :
Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services under RBSK envisages to cover 30 selected health conditions for Screening, early detection and free management. States and UTs may also include diseases namely hypothyroidism, Sickle cell anaemia and Beta Thalassemia based on epidemiological situation and availability of testing and specialized support facilities within State and UTs.

Mechanisms for screening at Community & Facility level :
Child screening under RBSK is at two levels community level and facility level. While facility based new born screening at public health facilities like PHCs / CHCs/ DH, will be by existing health manpower like Medical Officers, Staff Nurses & ANMs, the community level screening will be conducted by the Mobile health teams at Anganwadi Centres and Government and Government aided Schools.

Screening at Anganwadi Centre :
All pre-school children below 6 years of age would be screened by Mobile Block Health teams for deficiencies, diseases, developmental delays including disability at the Anganwadi centre at least twice a year. Tool for screening for 0-6 years is supported by pictorial, job aids specifically for developmental delays.

For developmental delays children would be screened using age specific tools specific and those suspected would be referred to DEIC for further management.