Micronutrient supplementation for vulnerable children in the midst of school closure

In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, school closures have not only disrupted learning environments and education but also the health promoting platform schools provided. In low- and lower-middle income countries like India, most public preventive health programmes for children are made available through schools. 220 million children in India rely on the government’s ‘School Health Program’ to provide them with health services ranging from anemia screening to micronutrient management to the provision of mid-day meals in their schools . Over 400 days of school closures in India has meant disruption to these critical preventive health services.

This Shanti Ashram-ICPH initiative will aim to make zinc, vitamin A, multivitamins and deworming tablets available to 2000 vulnerable children across 15 villages following a village-level mapping exercise of vulnerable children in the age-group of 3-18. We will also study the local disruptions of the Government’s public health outreach of micronutrient interventions due to school closures.