The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has initiated "Family Life Education and Life skills programme for Teenagers," in association with Glaxo SmithKline Vaccines. The programme was launched with a "Teenage Month" aimed at addressing the complete (mental, physical and social) well being of the growing teenage population of India.

To kick-start the activities in this month, a workshop was held in Delhi to celebrate the World Teenage day, on August 1. As part of celebrating August as the teenage month IAP with support from GSK are planning a number of initiatives to educate teenagers and build awareness that will address their concerns encompassing all aspects of their well being including emotional, physical, social, physiological and sexual.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr M K C Nair, president of IAP, said, "Teenagers form a significant part of our population. It is important that their needs relating to their overall well being are addressed to help them cope up with the complexities of teenage life by guiding them on various physical, emotional and sexual aspects. As part of our initiatives, we are planning to organise school programmes for adolescents, publish books and articles for creating awareness and also come up with recommendations on Adolescent Immunization."

As the first phase of the initiative, IAP trained 500 paediatricians across the country. Interactive training sessions were held in 5 zones to address the various problems a teenager goes through at the tender time of adolescence, a release from IPA said.