A free deworming tablet for 18.5 lakh children: Varanasi's schools and anganwadis get ready for August 14

Thursday brings one of the district's quietest and biggest health exercises of the year. Under the National Deworming Mission, health and education staff across Varanasi will offer a free albendazole tablet to every child and young person aged one to nineteen — a target of roughly 18.50 lakh in all, about 11.10 lakh of them across the rural blocks and 7.40 lakh in the city. The tablet is handed out where children already are: schools, madrasas and anganwadi centres, so no family has to make a trip to a hospital for it. Children who are not enrolled anywhere are counted in too, with anganwadi workers meant to reach them in their own neighbourhoods. Anyone missed on the 14th gets a second chance on the mop-up day, August 18. Why the district bothers with a day like this: intestinal worms quietly drain a growing child. Chief Medical Officer Dr N P Singh explains that the infection surfaces as malnutrition and anaemia and slows physical development, and that clearing it lifts both nutrition levels and the fight against anaemia. Deputy CMO Dr Sanjay Ray has stressed that the out-of-school children matter just as much to the coverage numbers. If there are children at home, the practical bit is simple. Send them off on Thursday having eaten, mention any ongoing medicine or illness to the teacher or anganwadi worker before the dose, and if the day slips past you, ask your nearest centre about the August 18 round.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi