The Government of India on 7 January 2014 launched the nation's first comprehensive adolescent health programme named Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) in New Delhi. The RKSK defines an adolescent as a person within 10-19 years of age, in urban and rural areas, includes both girls and boys, married and unmarried, poor and affluent, whether they are in school or out of school. This broad definition helps to address the multitude problems of adolescents across various groups and categories. The programme is committed at promotion of adolescent health mission across India and would address to the health needs of 243 million adolescents constituting 21 percent of the total population in the country.
The vision of the programme is that all adolescents in India are able to realize their full potential by making informed and responsible decisions related to their health and well-being.
Target Group:
The new adolescent health (AH) strategy focuses on age groups 10-14 years and 15-19 years with universal coverage, i.e. males and females; urban and rural; in school and out of school; married and unmarried; and vulnerable and under-served.
Objectives of the programme:
A. Improve Nutrition
a) Reduce the prevalence of malnutrition among adolescent girls and boys (including overweight/obesity)
b) Reduce the prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) among adolescent girls and boys
B. Enable sexual and reproductive health
a) Improve knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, in relation to SRH
b) Reduce teenage pregnancies
c) Improve birth preparedness, complication readiness and provide early parenting support for adolescent parents
C. Enhance Mental Health
a) Address mental health concerns of adolescents
D. Prevent injuries and violence
a) Promote favourable attitudes for preventing injuries and violence (including GBV) among adolescents
E. Prevent substance misuse
a) Increase adolescents' awareness of the adverse effects and consequences of substance misuse
F. Address conditions for NCDs
a) Promote behaviour change in adolescents to prevent NCDs such as cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases and strokes
Strategies:
A. Community based interventions
i) Peer Education (PE)
ii) Quarterly Adolescent Health Day (AHD)
iii) Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Programme (WIFS)
iv) Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS)
B. Facility based interventions
i) Strengthening of Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHC)
ii) within Health & Family Welfare - FP, MH (incl VHND), RBSK, National Tobacco Control Programme,National Mental Health Programme, NCDs and IEC
iii) with other departments/schemes – Social Welfare (ICDS,SABLA), Youth Affairs and Sports etc.
iv) (Adolescent Empowerment Scheme, National Service Scheme, NYKS, etc)
C. Social and Behaviour Change Communication with focus on Inter Personal Communication
RKSK Status in Assam till March'2017
All components of RKSK programme is being implemented in 6 High Priority Districts (HPDs) in the state. Those districts are Dhubri, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Nagaon.
Other adolescent Health components like Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (Low cost sanitary napkins @Rs.6/- per pack to adolescent girls by ASHAs), Weekly Iron & Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme and Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs) are implementing in all 27 districts.
Total 59 Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs) are established in the state at DH, SDH and CHC level (41 in HPDs and 18 in Non HPDs). Total 20 Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHC)s are functional with dedicated counselors.
Two model AFHCs have been established.
Total 5424 Peer Educators have been selected in 6 HPDs. (2 boys and 2 girls from each village/1000 population have been selected as Peer Educator (PE) under each ASHA). (Detail in RKSK implementation guidelines)
Till March'17, total 5067 numbers of PEs (93.42%) have been trained on 6 days module training along with 1280 numbers of ASHAs.
Each Peer Educator is expected to form a group of 15-20 boys and girls (separate group of boys and girls) respectively from their community and conduct a two hour sessions per week–using PE kits
PEs are being provided non-monetary incentive for their contribution.
Adolescent Health Clubs are being formed at the SC level in 6 HPDs.
Celebration of Adolescent Health day (AHD) in each quarter, in each village is being done. Total 1305 numbers of AHDs have been conducted till March'17
Menstrual Hygiene Programme is going on in 27 districts.
WIFS programme is going on in 27 districts.