India’s UNESCO Chair on Global Health & Education Hails UP’s health Education Initiative
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Thanking Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for what he described as “a giant leap towards building a healthier India”, Dr Rahul Mehra, India’s National Representative for the UNESCO Chair on Global Health & Education and Executive Chairman of Tarang Health Alliance, on Monday hailed the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to integrate structured health education materials such as My Health World and Eat Right India into government schools.
Describing the announcement as a defining moment for the movement to make health education a compulsory part of schooling, Dr Mehra said the decision was especially gratifying for Tarang Health Alliance, which has been consistently advocating this reform and demonstrating its impact through school-based programmes.
“This is a matter of immense pride and satisfaction for us. For years, we have been urging policymakers to recognise that health education is as fundamental as mathematics, science or languages. Over the past year, we have not just advocated this idea but demonstrated through our work in schools that structured health education changes behaviours and improves health outcomes. Uttar Pradesh’s decision is a big shot in the arm for this movement. It validates years of advocacy and reinforces our belief that the time has come for health education to become a compulsory part of school education across India. I congratulate Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for taking this visionary step.”
Calling the move a decisive step towards strengthening preventive healthcare through education, Dr Mehra said integrating health education into classroom teaching, morning assemblies, Bal Sabhas, parent-teacher meetings and school health programmes recognises that good health is not just a healthcare issue but a fundamental part of education. “The most effective way to reduce the burden of preventable diseases is to equip children with the knowledge and habits that help them make informed choices throughout their lives. Schools are uniquely placed to nurture these behaviours at scale. The true success of health education lies not in what children know, but in how they behave. Its purpose is to create lasting behaviour change by helping children adopt healthier habits that stay with them into adulthood.”
Tarang Health Alliance has implemented comprehensive school health education programmes across 30 schools in Delhi NCR, the Chandigarh tri-city region and Jaipur during 2024-25, demonstrating measurable improvements in students’ health behaviours through classroom learning and parent engagement. Dr Mehra expressed hope that Uttar Pradesh’s initiative would inspire other states to integrate comprehensive health education into their SCERT curricula and school systems. He said such collective action would strengthen India’s human capital and accelerate the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
