Fluorosis Control and Prevention gets place in school curriculam

Jaipur, May 8 (UNI) Amla, lemon, orange, tomato, papaya, sprouted cereals/pulses, leafy vegetables and food rich in calcium like milk and curd should be taken regularly in a diet to fight Fluorosis.

This in not a doctor's prescription to a visiting patient but is a paragraph from a recently added lesson on community health, being taught to the students of class eighth in Rajasthan from this academic session.

The Rajasthan Government has added this new chapter in the middle school's curriculam as part of its multipronged strategy being implemented under Rajasthan Integrated Fluorosis Mitigation Programme (RIFMP), which aims to contain the serious health problem, presently prevailing in over 23,200 villages in the state, by year 2010.

In its bid to alleviate the problem within a given frame of time the state government had accorded top priority to RIFMP and constituted a state-level multipurpose Fluorosis Control Committee for preventing and controlling Fluorosis holistically.

The committee has inducted secretaries of as many as 17 state government departments which are concerned directly or indirectly with the problem and its mitigation. Besides this, representatives of various NGOs and organisations like UNICEF, CSIR, NEERI are also part of the committee.

On the recommendation of a multipronged strategy covering aspects of long term and short term approach, a programme for public awareness and people's participation in the Fluorosis control programme has been underetaken.

The inclusion of a new chapter in the curriculam of class eighth for teaching the ways and means to prevent and control Flouorosis has also been done on the committee's recommendation, Mr Bharat Meena, Secretary State Public Health Engeerring Department (PHED) said.

He said that teaching the topic to students at middle level was the most appropriate and effective way to create mass awareness among them and their families and neighbourhood.

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