The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honoured Dr Radhika Batra, co-founder of the nonprofit organization Every Infant Matters, which provides last-mile health solutions to disadvantaged children in India along with three others with the 2022 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards. "Radhika Batra of India, Zahra Joya of Afghanistan, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda, and Ursula von der Leyen of Germany are recognized for their extraordinary work towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," an official statement said.
Since launching in 2017, Dr Batra's organization has saved 74,173 children from blindness; given prenatal vitamins to more than 40,000 disadvantaged women; and provided education to prevent gender inequality and the stigma of TB, HIV/AIDS, and blindness to more than 65,000 families. "Dr Batra is progressing SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities," as per an official statement.
We at ETimes-TOI, spoke to Dr Radhika Batra on kids's health, how COVID has impacted the kids mostly and what can be done to help kids heal from the pandemic effects:
ETimes-TOI: Your organisation works on helping kids with blindness. What has been your effort in this so far?
Dr Radhika Batra: We are giving children vitamin A drops. We usually get vitamin A from the diet, but the children who we are talking about survive on a meagre amount of food which is often of low quality which is why they are deficient in vitamin A. As a result of this deficiency they lose sight.
We prevent this condition by giving them vitamin A drops. It is a very cost effective intervention that can make a world of difference. Blind child is essentially a disabled child; a child who gets to see has a life of joy and colors, and this is what we are trying to do.
As a part of the community, everybody should know preventable blindness in kids. Please tell us something about the signs and symptoms.
Progressive loss in sight is not noticeable in kids. The best thing to do is to keep them under the supervision of health care workers and doctors who can pick up other signs of malnutrition and then make an assessment.
The best way to deal with this is prevention, instead of taking a call later on when the problem has started to deteriorate.
ETimes-TOI: How big is the gap between prevalence of preventable diseases in kids and awareness around it? How is your organisation bridging the gap?
Dr Radhika Batra: The gap is tremendous especially in a country like India where parents are not aware of good practices that are appropriate for a child's good health. Many parents are not aware of childhood illness' and signs and symptoms.
It has also been seen that parents miss the vaccination doses of their kids as they are not aware of its importance.
These reasons put together increase the burden of preventable diseases in the country. Despite the government having such a strong immunization program, almost 40% of the kids are not immunized because of the lack of awareness.
We are trying to bridge this gap of available resources and unawareness. We have holistic healthcare projects which focus on educating these parents about the good practices and bad practices and myths around childhood.
ETimes-TOI: Which section of the society do you feel is the most deprived when it comes to kids' health. Or is the same scenario everywhere?
Dr Radhika Batra: It is a difficult question to answer. Gender discrimination among kids is still happening in the country. There are several other factors in our society that are hampering a kid's health. In view of this, we are trying to create awareness among people without tampering with their socio-economic beliefs.
To achieve this, we are empowering a person from within the community. When a person from within the community tries to educate such people it has a much greater impact than when an outsider says the same thing.
ETimes-TOI: What has been the most severe effect of COVID on kids' health?
Dr Radhika Batra: The drop in vaccination! Parents were scared to take their kids to hospitals, they did not take them for regular checkups. Parents did not allow their kids to step outside as a result of which their mental health was affected. Rise of domestic abuse also had an adverse effect on kids.
The most important factor was the closing of schools. Schools are essential for the psycho-social development of a kid.
These factors together affected the health of kids in India.
ETimes-TOI: Would you be interested to throw some light on the mental health of kids?
Dr Radhika Batra: It is very unfortunate that people do not talk about the mental health of kids. During COVID, the mental health of kids was affected a lot. Staying in isolation, not being allowed to go near parents during the infection, some even not sure if they would ever see their moms or dads come out safe from the infection put a lot of pressure on the kids.
ETimes-TOI: What can be done to help children heal from the pandemic?Dr Radhika Batra: Diet plays an important role. Immunity needs to be increased in kids so that kids can fight off the viruses. The new viruses are highly prevalent in kids and hence it is of utmost requirement to keep kids safe from it.
Vaccination is of paramount importance. All vaccinations, including for COVID for some age group should never be ignored.
Kids should be given a good and fresh environment to grow.
