To ensure people do not fall prey to quacks impersonating as healers of diseases, Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur District Collector Vijay Dayaram has created a team of health warriors or ‘Swastya Yodhas’ who will go from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, and house to house, to disseminate the correct information about some common ailments like malaria, typhoid, pneumonia, etc.
Chhattisgarh, despite having a huge tribal population and areas dominated by Naxalites, is one of the fastest developing states in India. To support this growth, such an initiative has been taken in Balrampur as it would add up immensely to the main focus, that is, to provide better health benefits to the people.
WHY HEALTH WARRIORS?
Giving more details about the initiative, Collector Vijay Dayaram, IAS, told Indian Masterminds, “Whenever we talk about health, there are some important issues we need to take care of. Firstly, timely redressals. This can only come with a basic knowledge about the disease or health issue. People of our district are mostly exposed to diseases like anemia, skin disease, some kind of fever and influenzas, malaria, typhoid, etc. These diseases can be cured easily and timely if a person has some basic knowledge about its primary treatment.”
In this regard, the administration has chosen school students to become health warriors. “As children represent the future generation and have currently time to spare for gaining knowledge about health-related problems and their remedies, we thought that they will be a perfect fit as they will definitely take it back to their homes and serve the purpose for us,” Mr. Dayaram said.
He further mentioned that sometimes basic information like eating healthy food like green vegetables, and covering the skin and applying mosquito repellent can help people fight diseases like malaria. Hence, this initiative was really needed in a district like Balrampur where villagers have no idea about prevention of any disease.
SPREADING INFORMATION IN SCHOOLS
On the other hand, Chhattisgarh has dedicated Saturday as a bag-less day for the all school students so as to focus on extra-curricular activities like yoga, exercise, sports, etc. This initiative has been taken by the Department of School Education to make learning in schools more interesting and practical.
Mr. Dayaram said, “We thought it would be nice if we can provide basic information about health issues on this particular day where an hour will be dedicated in spreading information on what to do and what not to do. Even the children of PVTGs (Particular Vulnerable Tribal Groups) will be invited so that they can also add up to this initiative. We have roped in local medical practitioners as well as the ones who are practicing in private hospitals to come to schools and give guest lectures with proper live examples.”
The initiative started off with Swami Atmanand English Medium School along with four more schools in the first phase. It was then expanded to 18 schools in total where around 100-150 children participated from each school. The number of heath warriors is increasing in Balrampur, with the number already exceeding the 1,000 mark. The initiative will be expanded to other schools and universities of the district so that the aim of having at least one health warrior in each household is met.
Mr. Dayaram expressed satisfaction at the good response the initiative has been eliciting, with children now starting to disseminate health-related information in their social circles.
