For the promotion of homoeopathy system, the ministry of Ayush, through Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), an autonomous organisation under the ministry, has developed a programme, ‘Homoeopathy for Healthy Child’, aiming at screening, early diagnosis and management of common diseases of children and adolescents.
 
The programme will be implemented on pilot basis in 10 blocks in five states and an amount of Rs. 2.79 crore has been approved for the first stage of its implementation. Thirty disease conditions of children and adolescents will be diagnosed and treated under this programme, sources from the ministry informed Pharmabiz.

Sources said the main features of the programme are health promotion during teething and integration of homoeopathy under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

For health promotion programme, field health workers such as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) and Anganwadi Workers (AWW) will be trained to provide home based care for minor complaints related to teething. These health care workers will be provided a kit of common bio-chemic/homoeopathic medicines for timely management. A training manual has been developed for using this kit.
 
For integration of homoeopathy under RBSK, homoeopathic doctors will be provided training for the diagnosis of 30 disease conditions of children and adolescents (0-18 years) identified under the scheme. These doctors will be involved in screening of children (or coordinating with existing screening teams) for these conditions. Homoeopathic treatment will be provided for the identified conditions along with early intervention provisions outlined in the RBSK.
 
The states identified for implementing the pilot programme are Assam, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The initial amount approved by the ministry for the programme is for training, manpower/salaries, material and conveyance for the first stage, said Ayush minister Shripad Yasso Naik in the Parliament in last week.