Summer workshop for children of slum dwellers: A self reliance initiative

Abstract

Background: Urban slums in India are a neglected community as far as public facilities are concerned. There is no health infrastructure since such areas are largely illegal and unauthorised to start with and therefore, the community cannot utilize the social security schemes as well, that are meant for the economically weaker sections of the country. Objectives: To generate health awareness among the slum adolescents and make them economically independent. Methodology: summer workshop was conducted for a period of one week by the MBBS students in the urban slum of Bhangel. Two groups of slum adolescents were recognised. Health awareness sessions were conducted for these children everyday on one or the other relevant health topic along with teaching them some vocational skills. Results: on comparing the pre and post workshop assessment, the results were encouraging. Conclusion: Marked improvement was observed in the knowledge levels and livelihood promotion.