Health-promoting school in India: Approaches and challenges

Interventions early in life are the need of the hour when it comes to controlling the rising incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. WHO has issued guidelines towards health promotional initiatives at schools as a part of Global School Health Initiative, and the Government of India has directed many policies and programs to integrate health deep within the school activities. School Health Promotion is an international need with programmes implementing across continents due to numerous documented benefits, to not just the individuals but to the community and country as a whole. Simple teachings like hand hygiene have shown to reduce the incidence diarrhea by more than 50% amongst children (a major cause of mortality in India), thus raising an urgent need of developing a model for health promotion at schools that is replicable, sustainable, and can be modified to the local needs as well. Though the existent programmes have a few documented challenges, a multisectorial involvement of government agencies, educational boards, and health sector along with the school is the way forward to address those challenges and covert the theory of health promoting schools (HPS) into a well-established fact. It presents a scope for the various established and newly emerging Schools of Public Health in the country to come forward and collaborate with these multiple sectors. These collaborations can be the only way to ensure sustainability and incorporation of health promotion into the core academic structure of schools in a diverse and highly populous country like India.