Which age group of children/adolescents is included in Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram ?

Question

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Correct — D, 10 to 19 years. Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) was launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 7 January 2014 under the National Health Mission, and it uses the World Health Organization's definition of an adolescent: any person aged 10 to 19 years. The programme deliberately covers that entire band without filters — boys and girls, rural and urban, married and unmarried, in-school and out-of-school — which, on Census 2011 numbers, is about 253 million people, a little over a fifth of India's population.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) No Indian health programme and no WHO definition begins adolescence at 8. The under-6 band belongs to ICDS/Anganwadi services and the school-based Ayushman Bharat School Health and Wellness Programme runs 5-18 years, but neither is RKSK, whose lower bound is firmly 10.  (b) Both ends are wrong. The lower end is not 8, and RKSK does not stop at 17 — it runs to 19, which is why the last two teenage years (18 and 19, legally adult) are still inside the programme.  (c) A plausible-looking 'school years' band, but it matches no scheme. Adolescence in RKSK is a health definition tied to puberty and the teenage decade (10-19), not to school classes.

Concept: RKSK is India's flagship adolescent health programme, run under the National Health Mission. It replaced the narrower ARSH (Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health) strategy, which had dealt only with sexual and reproductive health, and widened the agenda to six thematic areas: nutrition; sexual and reproductive health; mental health; non-communicable diseases; substance misuse; and injuries and violence, including gender-based violence. Delivery runs through Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics, trained Peer Educators (Saathiya), Adolescent Health Days, Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation and the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme.

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