Context: Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed the Rajya Sabha about the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) while discussing the health and well-being of adolescents in the country.
About Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram

• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has launched a health programme for adolescents, in the age group of 10-19 years, which would target their nutrition, reproductive health and substance abuse, among other issues.
• The key principle of this programme is adolescent participation and leadership, Equity and inclusion, Gender Equity and strategic partnerships with other sectors and stakeholders. 
• The programme envisions enabling all adolescents in India to realize their full potential by making informed and responsible decisions related to their health and well-being and by accessing the services and support they need to do so.

Target Groups

• The new adolescent health (AH) strategy focuses on age groups 10-14 years and 15-19 years with universal  coverage, i.e. males and females; urban and rural; in school and out of school; married and unmarried; and vulnerable and under-served.

Objectives

• Improve nutrition;Reduce the prevalence of malnutrition among adolescent girls and boys;
• Reduce the prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) among adolescent girls and boys;
• Improve sexual and reproductive health;Improve knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, in relation to SRH;
• Reduce teenage pregnancies;Improve birth preparedness, complication  readiness and provide early parenting support for  adolescent parents
• Enhance mental health;Address mental health concerns of adolescents;
• Prevent injuries and violence;Promote favourable attitudes for preventing injuries and violence (including GBV) among  adolescents;
• Prevent substance misuse;Increase adolescents’ awareness of the adverse effects and consequences of substance misuse;
• Address NCDs;Promote behaviour change in adolescents to prevent NCDs such as hypertension, stroke, cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes

It has the following components:

• The Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs) are established across various levels of public health institutions in all the States.
• Weekly Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme is being implemented for school going adolescent boys and girls and out of school adolescent girls across the country.
• The Peer Educator Programme is being implemented in select 200 districts, based on Composite Health Index and identified as High Priority Districts (HPDs). Within, these districts, 50% of the blocks are beingcovered for implementation of Peer Educator Programme in entirety. Government plans to saturate all the blocks in the selected Peer Educator districts first and then expand in remaining districts gradually based on proposals received from States in their Programme Implementation Plans.
• Under the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme, funds are provided to the States/UTs for procurement of sanitary napkins for Adolescent Girls (aged 10-19 years) as per proposals received from them in their Annual Programme Implementation Plans
• It focuses on reaching out all adolescents include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ). The training of the Medical Officers, ANMs,  Counsellors and Peer educators also caters to the need of this special population group in non-judgmental and non-stigmatized manner.