IDS’s intervention with Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) is growing! We are now creating a preventive health care initiative within the education centers. Here is a recent report from our IPCA contact:

IPCA currently operates five education centers at the following locations:

1. Barola, Sector 49, Noida
2. Village Sarfabad, Sector 71, Noida
3. Village Sarfabad, Noida
4. Village Makanpur, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad
5. Near Sai Temple, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad

The current student population is 157. Recently, seven more students, after performing quite well in our centers, were admitted to government schools. To ensure that our students, the children of rag pickers, succeed in the government schools, we are engaging with their parents and school administrators.

Since we set up our education centers, we have been monitoring the children’s health and have noticed that many suffer from diarrhea, respiratory illnesses, and infections. One way we measure the health of our children is by calculating their body mass index (BMI); on average, they have low BMIs. It is our belief that an unhealthy or underweight child would be unable to perform well in school.

A healthy child can be a better student

With that in mind, we have begun conducting health camps on a monthly basis in our education centers. In last month’s camp, we administered breathing tests to measure the children’s respiratory function.

Costs are still reasonable

The unit cost of conducting a health camp is around Rs. 175 per child per month; this includes the cost of medicines. The cost of primary education in our centers is Rs. 560 per child per month and includes infrastructure (rooms), stationery, and the teacher’s salary.