National Deworming Day 2023 will be observed on 10 February 2023 in all States and UTs of India. Children between the ages of 1 to 19 will be dewormed with the administration of the safe Albendazole 400 mg chewable tablet in schools and anganwadis. The early years of a child are the most critical and significant.
Many initiatives are currently being undertaken by the Government like Polio eradication, National Iron Plus Initiative for combating anemia, screening of children under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakarm and improvement of health and sanitation through Swachha Bharat Abhiyan. Another key area that needs to be addressed is the risk of parasitic intestinal worm infestation in children.
Making our children completely intestinal worm-free is going to be a gradual process. A National Deworming Day will be observed as a part of this initiative. This will help children to reduce the transmission of Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH), thereby improving nutrition level and reducing anemia in children.
PROCEEDINGS OF DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION TELANGANA:: HYDERABAD Rc.No.630/Plg-1/2016; Dated: 03.08.2017
Sub: School Education – National Deworming – Request to extend support to Evidence Action / for process monitoring and coverage validation of National Deworming Day, August 2017 in Schools in Telangana NDD – Reg.
Read Lr. No. 307/SHP/2012., Dt. 27.07.2017., From: The Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, Telangana, Hyderabad.
While enclosing a copy of reference read above, the Regional Joint Director of School Education Hyderabad, Warangal and all the District Educational Officers in the state are requested to extend their co-operation to Health & Family Welfare and Mission Director to Evidence Action for process monitoring and coverage validation of National Deworming Day, August 2017 in schools in Telangana.
Request to extend support to Evidence Action/ for process monitoring and coverage validation of National Deworming Day, August 2017 in schools in Telangana. The state will observe the National Deworming Day (NDD) on 10, August followed by a mop-up day on 23rd August 2017.
Approximately 94 lakh children are targeted from the entire state (all 31 districts) & Albendazole drug 400mg chewable tablet will be administered to all the children in schools and Anganwadi under this mass drug administration program.
In order to ensure the quality of the program Evidence Action has hired the services of an expertized agency to implement the monitoring activities. There will be around 125 monitors, each of whom will visit one school on each National Deworming Day (10th August 2017) & Mop-up day(23rd August 2017) and five randomly selected schools for coverage validation during 29th August to 6th September 2017 in all 66 divisions across the state. The monitors will be given orientation on monitoring activities along with the detailed programmatic briefings.
These monitors will observe the entire process of deworming in the school go through the attendance register, school reporting forms, and physically validate the availability of drugs, IEC materials, interview headmaster/ teachers and three students (in three different randomly selected classes) in each sampled school.
The final report on findings from the process ply monitoring will be shared with the State Government. In this regard, you are requested extend support to those monitors hired by Evidence Action to facilitate access of schools to independent monitors in order to carry the above-mentioned activities in randomly selected schools during the above-mentioned dates in Telangana.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE DISTRICT EDUCATIONAL OFFICER MAHABUBABAD
Rc.No.SPl/B5/2017 Date: 06.02.2017
Subject: School Education –National Deworming Day on 10/02/2017-Depute one teacher from each school to concerned P.H.C’s- reg.
Ref: Instructions of The D.S.E, T.S, Hyderabad.
All the Mandal Educational Officers in the District are hereby informed that the National Deworming Day is Scheduled on 10/02/2017.
In this Connection Ali, the Mandal Educational Officers are requested to depute one teacher from each school (P.S, UPS, H.S) to concerned Primary Health Centre(PHC) for getting instructions regarding National Deworming Day on 07/02/2017 without fail. The Proceedings shall be acknowledged forthwith.
National Deworming Day (NDD) is an initiative to help our children live healthily and help in reducing morbidities. Confident that if the comprehensive set of actions identified in the National Deworming Day Guidelines is fully implemented, children will have improved health outcomes and be able to achieve their potential to the fullest.
Best wishes and fervent support to this new and significant initiative and urge the States/UTs to accelerate their efforts towards the successful implementation of this initiative. Let us all come forward to support this initiative and make the National Deworming Day a success.
Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are among the most common infections worldwide and an ect the poorest and most deprived communities. They are transmitted by eggs present in human feces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where sanitation is poor.
Several studies show the detrimental effects of STH on children’s educational performance and school attendance. Children with the highest intensity of STH infestation are often too sick or too tired to concentrate at school or attend school at all.
STHs interfere with nutrient uptake in children; can lead to anemia, malnourishment and impaired mental and physical development. Rigorous research has shown that they also pose a serious threat to children’s education and productivity later in life.
In areas where parasitic worms are endemic, administering safe, effective deworming drugs to children at schools and anganwadis is a development “best buy” due to its impact on educational and economic outcomes and low cost. The evidence shows that mass deworming leads to significant improvement in outcomes related to education, earnings, and
long-term well-being.*
NATIONAL DEWORMING DAY:
India has the highest burden of STH in the world, with 241 million children at risk of parasitic worm infections. Under-nutrition and anemia in children has been well documented in India: almost 7 in 10 children in the 6-59 months age-group are anemic, with even higher rates of anemia in rural areas.
To combat this situation, in February 2015, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Government of India launched the National Deworming Day (NDD) as part of the National Health Mission. NDD aims to deworm all children between the ages of 1-19 years through Government, Government-aided and private schools, and Anganwadi centers in order to improve their overall well-being, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life.
Under this program, all school teachers and Anganwadi workers are provided training and resource material to e actively administer the deworming drug (Albendazole tablets) at school and Anganwadi centers.
The NDD has emerged as the world’s largest public health campaign for the treatment of intestinal parasitic worms. After the unprecedented coverage of NDD with national coverage of more than 89 million children, the MoHFW mandated the observation of the NDD at the pan-India level on 10 February 2017.
The NDD will be followed by a mop-up day on 15 February to cover children who might be left out earlier due to sickness or absenteeism and will ensure maximum coverage with optimal utilization of resources.
In addition, the fixed day strategy will prioritize deworming within Anganwadi and school health programs, increase awareness, and standardize campaign messages across the country.
STAKEHOLDERS
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India is the nodal agency for providing all States and UTs with operational guidelines related to NDD, with the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Women and Child Development (ICDS) as the key stakeholders for NDD implementation.
Other key stakeholders are Ministries of Panchayati Raj, Tribal Welfare, Rural Development, Urban Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation. WHO, National Centre for Disease Control and Evidence Action’s Deworm the World Initiative are the technical assistance partners to MoHFW, Government of India.
IMPLEMENTING NATIONAL DEWORMING DAY
Key components to implement a successful NDD include drug procurement and management, adverse event management systems, monitoring and supervision plan, and recording and reporting processes. Strategies have been put into place to ensure that these components are rolled out in a streamlined and effective manner. These strategies include:
- Steering Committee Meetings at States and Districts prior to NDD
- A robust integrated distribution of drugs, IEC, and training handouts during training at block, sector, and project level to ensure all material for the program are made available on time
- Community awareness and mobilization, with specific efforts towards ASHA engagement to include out-of-school children into the program
- Adverse Event Management protocols that provide clear instructions on the management of adverse events
- Monitoring and reporting cascade to ensure that NDD is being implemented as planned and to assess whether the desired resulted are being achieved.