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Registered
Office
T-7, 1st Floor,
Green Park Extension,
New Delhi (India)– 110 016
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Working Office
C-1/52, 3rd Floor,
Safdarjung Development Area
New Delhi-110 016, India
Phone: 91-11-26850342, 41031191
Fax: 91-11-26850331
info@hriday-shan.org
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| GET INVOLVED |
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HRIDAY - SHAN evolved in three phases, expanding from school based health education to community based health activism |
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School Components
During the first phase of HRIDAY (1992-94), the health education intervention concentrated on 5 key areas: diet and nutrition, physical activity, tobacco avoidance, stress management and environment. Students of grade VI-XI from 16 private schools (representing high socio-economic status) and 17 government schools (representing low socio-economic status) schools of Delhi were targeted. They were randomly allocated to ‘active intervention’ and ‘passive observation’ groups.
The activities conducted were school based and included workshops for students and teachers, assembly talks & interactive sessions, quiz programmes, poster & elocution contests, and project work. Apart from these activities, HRIDAY educational material in Hindi and English - including posters, illustrated booklets and a video film on healthy lifestyles - were also provided to schools. Some additional resources, such as tobacco information folders, audio-cassettes containing talks by experts on the health hazards of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, were also used as health awareness inputs. An interactive computer software programme was also developed.
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Analysis and evaluation (1994-96), revealed that schools in the active intervention group demonstrated greater positive change in knowledge level, in comparison with schools in the control group. This was especially evident in the government schools which began with lower knowledge levels, in comparison to the private schools. The gap in knowledge between government and private schools in the active intervention group narrowed down in the post-intervention evaluation, indicating greater benefits received by the government schools. Since the intervention and the evaluation instrument were composite, it was difficult to separate out the specific effects on tobacco related knowledge and behaviours. |
School Components + Home Components
The success and lessons of the first phase of the project as well as shared experience of similar projects like CATCH (Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health) of USA, spurred the initiation of second phase of HRIDAY. During this phase (1996-1998), students aged 11-14 years (class VI students) of 15 government and 15 private schools were targeted. This time, the focus was on three areas: diet and nutrition, tobacco avoidance and physical activity. Teachers were a key component and the study included school and home settings.
Separate interventions were designed for home and school levels. School level activities included teacher and peer leader training workshops, intra and inter-school debate competitions and other activities as in Phase I. HRIDAY educational material was provided to all intervention schools and included a Teachers' Training Manual, 10 Posters and 1 Illustrated Booklet. Activities conducted at home level included the distribution of a series of six booklets: "Trek to the Health Track". Students were provided these booklets to be read at home and asked to perform the activities in it with their parents or elder siblings.
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A significant impact of the intervention was observed on the onset of tobacco use, in this young age group, wherein the intervention group showed a lower than anticipated rise in the proportion of students experimenting with smoking, in comparison with similar schools which did not have any intervention.
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School Components + Home Components + Community Components
During phase II, environmental barriers were identified which prevented the adoption of healthy lifestyle practices despite enhanced awareness. Several of these barriers need to be addressed by health promoting policies, through enabling regulatory or legislative measures. It was realised that it is important for school students - whose future health is determined by present policies - to speak up and voice their views. The recognition of this need and the potential impact of such a movement led to the birth of SHAN (Student Health Action Network) in 1998.
The presentation, of an appeal, signed by 25000 school students of Delhi, to the Prime Minister of India on 12th September 1998 marked the formal launch of SHAN. Debates were initially organized (within 20 schools initially and later at inter-school level) on the need for a governmental ban on all forms of tobacco advertising and sponsorship. SHAN subsequently conducted a signature campaign among school students, which culminated in the appeal to the Prime Minister.
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SHAN is a network of high school students (14-17 years) of Delhi. It provides a forum for the students to periodically discuss policies and programmes relevant to their present and future health. The objectives of SHAN include promotion of informed debates on health related issues, intended to evolve consensus among students on actions (at individual, family, school and community levels) which will help protect and promote their present and future health and to encourage school students to actively articulate demands for appropriate governmental policy (legislation/regulation) which will be conducive to their present and future health. The process is illustrated in Figure 1.
Introduction of SHAN in schools strengthened commitment to health promotion, among both the younger as well as older groups of students. The motto of SHAN is 'debate the present to define the future'. The students are not passively informed but are actively involved. The older students also become role models for the younger students, in a child-to-child learning process. HRIDAY extended its network to include 63 schools of Delhi, where both the programmes were provided at two levels of age. HRIDAY programme caters to the students in Grades VI-VIII (learning the fact) and SHAN programme involves the students in Grades IX-XII (learning to act).
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