New Delhi

MCD schools help out anaemic students

MCD school children being tested for anaemia

NEW DELHI: By extending its anaemia control programme to Municipal Corporation of Delhi-run schools in Shahdara (South) Zone recently, the civic body is aiming to cover more school children under the ambitious venture.

According to MCD Medical Relief and Public Health Committee chairman Dr. V. K. Monga, 80,000 tests have been done on students so far and 88 per cent of them have been found to be suffering from anaemia.

To be carried out in collaboration with Lions Club International and Max Hospital, the programme entails coverage of about 50,000 school students up to Class V. While the civic body will provide doctors, medicines and lab testing facilities would be provided by the collaborating partners.

Under the programme, children diagnosed with anaemia will be given iron tablets to increase their haemoglobin levels to normal.

MCD Medical Relief and Public Health Committee Deputy Chairman Savita Gupta said: “The tests conducted so far reveal that the haemoglobin level of most children is not more than six whereas the normal level is 13 or 14. Due to this, children exhibit symptoms of irritability and memory loss among others and do not feel like studying even as they are faced with additional study burden.”

“With the help of tablets the haemoglobin levels are normalised over a period of time and anaemia is controlled. We are trying to hand out these tablets to children along with water after they finish their mid-day meals in school itself,” she added.

According to MCD spokesperson Y. S. Mann, the anaemia control programme was initiated in 2007 in collaboration with Max Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Soon it is proposed to be attached to the civic body’s school health scheme as has been done in the case of thalassemia.

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