The Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) was launched on 7 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 undeserved groups with the aim of ensuring their holistic development.
The RKSK programme has expanded 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 counselling; 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 community. The focus is on reorganizing the existing public health system in order to meet the
service needs of adolescents.
In 2016, CCC-I contextualised the RKSK behaviour change communication strategy for Chhattisgarh into a Communication Integration Framework. The process entailed identification of contextual factors unique to Chhattisgarh and qualitative interaction with adolescents and other stakeholders (NGOs, parents, social workers, teachers, media etc.) to inform the adaptation.
