Health of children is a matter of concern because they have fundamental
importance in the development of any society. This will include children up to
9 years of age: toddlers, infants and children; Adolescents aged 10 to 19; and
persons with disabilities of both age groups. Therefore, health, nutrition and
education are the basic needs for the overall development of a child so that
they can become an empowered citizen of the society and a responsible citizen
of the nation. However, by the same token, the different health problems of all
these groups have multifaceted effects, especially at different developmental
ages and the socio-economic and educational status of their parents.
Children's Health Needs
This is the state on which the basic foundation of a healthy life is laid. For
the all-round development of a child, the needs of physical, mental and social
health are very high. The basic health needs of children before birth, after
birth and during childhood are food and nutrition, immunity, favorable family
and social environment. Today, children in India are dying from diseases that
are very easy to prevent. The biggest disease among these is measles. The
largest group of diseases, including diarrhoea, pneumonia and various fevers,
cause the greatest number of deaths and morbidity among children; The second
largest group is unavailability of prompt family treatment and unavailability
of proper health services. More deplorable living conditions and an indifferent
attitude towards basic needs add to the causes. Even children who are able to
overcome these challenges are likely to be underweight and malnourished when
they reach school, and vulnerable to a variety of diseases. A multi-pronged
strategy is needed to take immediate action to address the health needs of
children.
Accordingly, ensuring quality health and nutrition for all and reducing infant
and child mortality as well as access to education and skill development are
the next priorities. All children should be fully vaccinated and vaccination
should be continued continuously. The above objective will be achieved only
when the immediate needs of all sections are oriented and addressed with timely
and appropriate health and nutrition services. This process of governance will
ensure that the benefits of these services reach every section of the society
with special emphasis on the poorest sections.
Health Needs of Adolescents
Health needs of adolescents In India, adolescents constitute one-fifth of the population. As you know, adolescence is the transitional stage between childhood and adulthood and is also important in the process of developing personal identity. These changes are linked to the entire process of gaining a sense of self-awareness – physical, physiological, mental and emotional changes. It is also a learning phase to understand the social and psychological demands of becoming a young adult. Issues such as independence, intimacy and dependence on peers need to be identified and appropriately supported to be handled responsibly. Teenagers are surprised by the sudden changes that occur in their bodies and minds. Thus, they are given a number of questions on various topics and health-oriented applications. Most teenagers suffer from stress and tension and react in different ways at different times. There is a risk of being too tall or too short and enlargement of body parts etc.
The biggest fear associated with adolescence is pimples on the face. This is a
tender age, yet as they transition into adulthood, it is also a time of
temptation to experiment, leading them to engage in various deviant behaviors.
The process of separation from parents and dependence on peer group also leads
them into confusing situations. There is no doubt that peer group exerts
positive influence, but it often leads them to adopt negative behaviour. The
most common is drug abuse. Thus, there is always a possibility of them getting
addicted to smoking and other types of intoxicants. These are first consumed by
the youth in the form of nectar for fun, relaxation or to escape from stress. Subsequently,
they are more likely to become addicted to them. The younger a person begins to
develop a drug habit, the more likely he or she is to become addicted and
develop cancer as well as heart disease in adulthood. Apart from these major
health needs, other problems among the youth are nutritional disorders which
number about 800 million and 20 percent respectively; Malnutrition and obesity,
drug abuse, high-risk sexual behaviour, stress, mental disorders and injuries
including road traffic injuries, suicides and various forms of violence. Most
of these are precursors to communicable and non-communicable diseases,
including mental disorders and injuries, which impose high morbidity,
mortality, disability and economic burden on adolescents, their families and
health systems. Apart from the above, teenagers' addiction to internet,
especially social media, gradually puts them under a lot of stress, causing
them to undergo depression and self-harm. They need security and encouragement so that they can pass this stage without
any trouble. They require counselling, health counseling along with treatment.
Health Needs of The Differently Abled
Health needs of disabled people: You may have noticed that other children are kept inside their homes. This type of discrimination mainly starts from family or relatives. It is common at various levels like, schools, workplaces, hospitals, and many more etc. Since the stigma associated with disability is stigmatizing for those people, their families also become victims of some form of discrimination. Thus, children with disabilities in this case face long-term poor health, socio-economic burden and social exclusion. That is to say, disability, as defined by the World Health Organization, falls under an umbrella term encompassing disability, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disability is no longer a health problem but a complex phenomenon. It has become an interaction between the characteristics of a person's body and the society in which he lives.
The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities declares persons with
disabilities as valuable human resources for the country. Its objective is to
provide them equal opportunities, protect the rights of persons with
disabilities and ensure their full participation in the society.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has focused on the needs and issues
of 'persons with disabilities' and 'people living in vulnerable situations'.
Thus, it poses a major challenge to maintain the physical, social and emotional
health of such populations. In the field of education and health, various
policies and welfare measures have been introduced in the schemes to address
various difficulties of persons with disabilities and their families. The focus
will be on 'Inclusive Development' for the welfare of persons with
disabilities, which is one of the important milestones towards sustainable
development.
Health Status of Children in India at a Glance
A look at the health status of children in India Basically,
the population of females and males of 0-6 years is 918, 916 and 943 of all age
groups respectively. Furthermore, the list of women is not considered desirable
by many states and union territories.
• All India Infant Mortality Rate has decreased from 46 in 2011 to 34 in 2016
as per Sample Registration System-2016. However, the scenario is not the same
for larger states and union territories. There, the IMR ranges from just 10 to
47 in Madhya Pradesh. The female IMR is reported to be 36 while the male is at
33.
• The estimated value of U5MR for all India level in the year 2016 is 39. In
case of U5MR, Kerala has the highest number of children at 11, Mizoram at 13
and Madhya Pradesh at 55 percent.
• In 2015-16, an estimated 28% of children suffering from anemia at the all
India level were suffering from mild anemia, 29% were suffering from moderate
anemia and 2% were suffering from severe anemia.
• NFHS-4, 2015-16: According to the report, at the all-India level, 38 percent
of children under five years of age are stunted, that is, their height is very
short for their age. This has improved from 48 percent in 2005-06. There has
been a comparatively higher increase in the percentage of children living in
urban areas compared to children living in rural areas, which is 31%. Five
states have high prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age,
while others have reported relatively low prevalence. These include 48% in
Bihar, 46% in Uttar Pradesh, 45% in Jharkhand and 44% in Meghalaya, while in
Kerala and Goa it is 20%.
• At all India level, 21 percent children are malnourished. Mizoram has the lowest number of malnourished children at 6 percent and Jharkhand has the highest number of malnourished children at 29 percent.
• The state of Haryana has the highest prevalence of anemia among children aged
6-59 months at 72 percent, while Mizoram has the lowest at 19 percent. Of all
children in India, 62 percent had received all primary immunizations at some
point before NFHS-4, and 54 percent had received all primary immunizations by
12 months of age.
The crime rate against children under 18 increased from 21.1 per lakh children
in 2015 to 24 in 2016.
• POCSO crimes have increased to 34.4% of the total crimes against children.
Addressing the Health Needs of Children
There are stakeholder groups essential to the health needs of children;
Institutions, teachers and critics. These are explained below.
Role of Schools
Schools should play the most direct role in equipping children and youth with proper health and safety tools to protect their health and give them a healthy habit forever. It is easier to inculcate good habits in childhood than it is to adopt harmful habits to change later in life. Most health-risk behaviors begin in childhood or adolescence and persist or recur much later in life. These are the major causes of diseases, death, disability and social problems:
•Physical inactivity
•Poor nutrition
•Drugs-tobacco, alcohol and other drugs
•Tension
•Taking risks or unintentionally leading to injury and violence
•Health-risk lifestyles that lead to HIV infection, other sexually transmitted
diseases and unintended pregnancies. Children's schooling through regular
exercise.
Contribution By Teachers
Long stay in schools will help in organizing various education, welfare and
training programs from time to time. The diverse needs of young children should
also be guided and counseled so that disadvantaged children can be discovered
and helped. Teachers in turn need to be aware of the diverse needs of learners
and choose innovative teaching methods, consultation and referral to
specialists if necessary. They need to collaborate with parents and society on
sensitive issues and issues that arise in children's lives. Some of the health
promotion programs that can be designed by the teacher for the empowerment of
children include games and sports, physical activities, curricular as well as
extra-curricular activities, nutrition education programs and preventive
measures against substance abuse.
They are a healthy group during adolescence. Generally, they do not suffer from
any kind of medical problem during their adolescence. They simply look for more
information or knowledge about some concerns that may be troubling their minds.
Often, they do not get proper answers to their concerns and become frustrated
and feel lost. They can easily get misled and hence fall into bad habits and
adopt risky behaviour.
People in this age group face extreme reluctance to talk about most of their
problems in front of their parents, family members and teachers. They never
want to talk to them about their problems because they are afraid or shy to
talk to them about their problems because these people get irritated with them
or are not sensitive to their problems. Therefore, we should encourage them to
express their personal concerns with someone they can trust.
Access and availability of health services for various health problems: The
emerging health needs of adolescents are access and availability of health
services for various health problems. Health care providers will encourage and
facilitate youth to use services more frequently so that teen-friendly services
are possible. Such adolescent-friendly health centers are being provided by
trained health service providers. The government is opening teen-friendly
health clinics, from which these centers are being developed. Adolescents feel
shy and avoid health services. Some of the reasons include lack of
confidentiality or privacy, lack of sensitive and patient care towards patients
by health workers and lack of friendly attitude shown by health workers.
Roles of Peer Educator or Peer Facilitator
Providing training or education to a few adolescents who can help educate or
mentor other adolescents is emerging as a popular approach to meeting the
health needs of adolescents. Such adolescents are known as 'peer group facilitators/teachers'.
They can help teenagers overcome their hesitations in communicating with their
parents, family members and teachers.
Train elders so that they can bring forward their awareness and advice based on
what they know about the health needs of their friends, peers or other children
in the community. But one should be aware of one's limits while giving
information related to sensitive issues and problems. One can refer them to
teachers or teen-friendly services appropriately. One can assist the teacher as
a peer facilitator when making various preparations for activities related to
problems and issues among teenagers.
To be a peer group teacher/facilitator you must be an active listener.
You should be aware of the various health issues that children face during
adolescence.
You have to be friendly, influential and approachable with children, and that
too in adolescence.
- You must also be trustworthy and truthful.
- Must be creative and innovative in solving any problem
- Also non-judgmental
- Also maintain confidentiality.
- Also a good role model in the school society.
Lifestyle and Fitness
Everyone wants to look beautiful and fit. A healthy lifestyle requires commitment. Desire, dedication and motivation are very important elements in wanting to adopt a healthy lifestyle. We all make New Year's resolutions and plan to change something in our lives at a very deep level. Most of us begin to consider adjusting factors in our lives, and they take into account either body weight, or physical or psychological health, or character. Many of us are fortunate enough to implement relevant changes in our lives. However, at the same time, many of us also fail. Changing lifestyle is a very drastic but not impossible task, especially in terms of involving yourself in regular physical exercises or sports. Tough Questions: In health, the toughest question is when do we set such goals? We have to create several strategies that motivate us to move forward keeping our health goals in mind. This may mean staying regular in the physical activities you want to do, playing sports or games, or reducing your junk food intake most days of the week, all to maintain good mental health and even some physical health.Lifestyle and Health Goals of a Healthy Lifestyle
A healthy lifestyle never becomes a part of our lives overnight, rather it is a
series of conscious and consistent decisions that we take day by day. The
changes it takes to make healthy lifestyle choices and engage in health
activities are very difficult, but if we stick to them it becomes part of our
new health behaviors. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle should be made an integral
part of one's life right from childhood and adolescence. These will negate or
reverse the adverse effects of lifestyle disorders such as bad eating habits
and physical inactivity. These are some strategies for maintaining health
goals. Through positive health goals, a person keeps himself motivated to
follow the goals with energy and enthusiasm.
For example, a student may have decided 'I will not eat my dinner every day'.
It's just a judgment, but it has negative thoughts. This kind of goal is not
even a step towards training our brain for a healthy lifestyle. This goal would
have been stated as 'I will eat healthy food'. Then it will be easier to choose
healthy food. Similarly we can choose “I will strictly say ‘no’ to the use of
tobacco”. Such goals help us develop pleasant habits in the long run. Set
realistic goals: You will surely agree that most of the times we set health goals,
which turn out to be meaningless. For example, we may decide that we will be
able to use tobacco at least five days a week.
However, we have been unable to do so for the past two weeks. Gradually we
forget our objective and think that exercising is difficult now. We get carried
away with this mindset that we either embrace it daily or we don't. It happens
that we give up. We could not exercise for five days because we did not get
time. In such situations there should be no regrets over failure. We should
reconsider and re-plan our goals related to regular physical activity or sports
keeping in mind the real conditions of our life.
Some Tips for Health Goals Set your Health Goals
Make it simple enough for you to be able to get started.
Keep them 'smart'. Identify what difficulties you may encounter and how you can
overcome them.
S - Specific: I will go jogging.
M – Measurable: At least 30 minutes each day during the week, or three/four
days a week.
A – Achievable: Five days a week.
R – Relevant: I will lose body weight.
T – Time Frame: I will implement this program for the entire year.
Efforts towards health goals at the international level – Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Strive for health goals at the international level – Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). Dr. Margaret Alva suggested that donor agencies and development
partners are of the view that to sustain the MDGs there has to be a focus on
health as central to development. Basic development issues were related to
MDGs. These are target-based, time-bound and have been one of the most
successful global goals. Of the total eight MDG objectives, three were health
related. These highlight the risks posed by health issues at an international
level. These are also commonly known as 'Transforming our world: the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development'. The SDGs are divided into 17 global goals,
which contain 169 targets. The SDGs carry forward the unfinished agenda of the
MDGs in creating sustainability and maintaining the momentum generated. These focus on aspects
of inclusivity, equity and urbanization. The third SDG—‘Ensuring healthy lives
and promoting well-being for people at all ages’—is broader than the health
targets in the MDGs, which were limited only to child and maternal mortality and
infectious diseases. The most outstanding
feature of SDG 3 is universal health coverage, which means 'providing access to
good quality health services without financial hardship for those who need it'.
So, there are many bases for the healthy development of adolescents. Two of
them are poverty, social discrimination, inadequacy of education and early
marriage and childbearing. It is anticipated that investing in adolescents will
help deliver immediate, direct benefits to India's health goals.
Contribution of physical Education For Promoting Health and Well-Being
Physical education: the key to improving health and well-being No distinction can be made between two types of health – physical health and mental health.
The relevant role of daily exercise lies in the process of gaining, losing or
maintaining weight. These are fundamental for energy balance and weight
control. Physical activity is therefore a lifestyle-related health determinant.
Low levels of physical activity pose one of the biggest public health problems
in India and many other countries around the world. Many lifestyle diseases
today are caused by lack of physical activity. Prolonged engagement in physical
activity leads to a decline in vital bodily functions. It was found that a
20–30% higher all-cause mortality rate was also present among those whose physical
activity levels were not high enough compared to at least 150 minutes per week
of moderate-intensity physical activity. (WHO, 2010) It provides the necessary
stimulation to most of the organs of the human body so that they can develop
and maintain their life structures and functions. Maintaining or even improving
organ function is driven by physical activity.
Physical activity is a major determinant of energy, balance and weight control.
In addition to this regulation of excess body weight, preventive effects of
physical activity include a reduction in the development of cardiovascular
diseases, diabetes, blood pressure, and cancer. This high-density lipoprotein
improves cholesterol levels and improves blood sugar control in overweight
individuals, even if they have not lost weight.
