Centre to solve adolescent issues with new mobile app

New Delhi: The Union health ministry Monday launched a mobile application, Saathiya Salah, to address issues of adolescents, such as nutrition, reproductive health and substance abuse.

Under the programme, 1.6 lakh boys and girls will work as peer educators and respond to queries of adolescents.

The programme is a part of the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK). “This is a critical mass of asset, and if we can drive this asset in the right direction, this is going to be the biggest dividend in terms of contribution to economy,” Union health secretary C.K. Mishra said.

He said one of the key interventions under the programme is introduction of peer educators (Saathiyas), who will act as a catalyst by imparting knowledge on key adolescent health issues to their peer groups.

“It is an ambitious programme because apart from health, we are also talking about behavioural change,” he said.

“India was among the first countries to launch an  exclusive programme related to adolescents and well-being, which was called RKSK. We have been debating how to push RKSK. It is not an easy job as we are talking about 26 crore adolescent population in the country,” Mr Mishra added.

He said one of the best ways to reach the adolescent population was via peer educators.

“These educators are largely from within the community, a boy and a girl, who we think with some amount of training can interact with the adolescent population,” he said.

“The app and the kit launched today are actually tools to help educators take this job forward. We are talking about 1.60 lakh peer educators in the field who will be trained,” he added.