Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK)

In order to ensure holistic development of the adolescent population, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) on 7th January 2014 to reach out to 253 million adolescents - male and female, rural and urban, married and unmarried, in and out-of-school adolescents with special focus on marginalized and underserved groups. The programme expands the scope of adolescent health programming in India - from being limited to sexual and reproductive health, it now includes in its ambit nutrition, injuries and violence (including gender-based violence), non-communicable diseases, mental health, and substance misuse. The strength of the program is its health promotion approach. It is a paradigm shift from the existing clinic-based services to promotion and prevention and reaching adolescents in their own environment, such as in schools, families, and communities. Key drivers of the program are community-based interventions like outreach by counselors; facility-based counseling; Social and Behavior Change Communication; and strengthening of Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics across levels of care.

Adolescents often do not have the autonomy or the agency to make their own decision. RKSK takes cognizance of this and involves parents and the community. The focus is on reorganizing the existing public health system in order to meet the service needs of adolescents. Under this, a core package of services includes preventive, promotive, curative, and counseling services and routine check-ups at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care are provided regularly to adolescents, married and unmarried, girls and boys during the clinic sessions.