Evidence Action has been working with the Government of India to prepare for the second round of National Deworming Day (NDD) for 2017, aimed at treating children in areas with high prevalence rates of parasitic worms. The Government of India conducted NDD on August 10.
Three hundred and ten million children across 34 states and UTs were targeted to receive a single deworming tablet from their teachers across schools and anganwadis in India. A national deworming day occurs annually in February, with a second round taking place in August in select states, as per World Health Organization recommendations. Evidence Action provided technical assistance to seven states during the August 2017 deworming round, including Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Karnataka.
National Deworming Day, 10 August 2017While the intervention itself involves administration of a single 400 mg dose of Albendazole to children, this mass-scale deworming program is the product of months of planning that requires engagement at multiple levels with several stakeholders, including state government departments, functionaries, and communities.
India’s National Deworming Day takes months of planning and organizingThrough the Deworm the World Initiative, Evidence Action is proud to support this program and the impact it has. Together with the government and other technical assistance partners, we work towards a National Deworming Day where every child in India, regardless of circumstance, can benefit from deworming.
The National Deworming Day slogan is “worm-free children, happy children”.