Centre to unveil school health curriculum today

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 29

The government will tomorrow unveil the first-of-its-kind health and wellness curriculum module for schools.

Part of the School Health Programme to be rolled out under the Ayushman Bharat Mission, the idea is to foster the growth, development and educational achievements of schoolgoing children.

The health and wellness curriculum draws on available evidence that educational outcomes are directly related to child health and wellbeing. The move will come close on the heels of apex food regulator issuing a draft notification to ban the sale of junk foods in school canteens and within 50 metres of the periphery of all schools.

The draft notification is up for public consultation and seeks to outlaw the sale of foods high in fats, salt and sugar (HFSS) as part of the new Food Safety and Standards (Safe Food and Healthy diets for School Children) Regulations, 2019, framed by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will both launch the School Health Programme tomorrow.

The curriculum, sources said, had become urgent after a recent Health Ministry and Unicef study revealed that Indian children aged 1 to 19 years were at heightened risk of non-communicable diseases. An alarming proportion of school students contacted during the first ever national survey of nutrition assessment in children showed exposure to risk factors for various NCDs. It revealed one in 10 Indian children were pre-diabetic which means they were increasingly disposed to being diabetic in later life and 10 per cent children and adolescents reported high triglycerides which indicates poor heart health.