The Orissa government today launched the School Health Programme (SHP) which aims to provide free health check-ups to the school children twice a year,.
The programme, a part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), would benefit over 58 lakh school students in 60,000 state-run schools run by different departments of the state government. The implementation of this programme involves an annual expenditure of Rs 30.13 crore.
The programme was launched by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik at Dutipada village under Khajuripada block in south Orissa’s Kandhamal district. Prasanna Acharya, the state's health and family welfare minster and Pratap Jena, the minister for school and mass education were present on the occasion.
The SHP would cover the students from Class 1 to 10 of the schools run by the departments of mass education, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, woman and child welfare and also the schools run by National Child Labour Project (NCLP).