NEW DELHI: In a unique innovation, village children in the backward state of Bihar may soon be sporting a necklace fitted with a radio frequency identification chip loaded with their complete medical history to help health officials and doctors keep track of their vaccination regimen. Speaking about the venture Bihar health secretary Sanjay Kumar said that steady monitoring would ensure that the children grow into healthy adults. “2.7 million children are born every year in Bihar alone. Our aim is to ensure that health care facilities reach every single child of the state so that we have healthy adults. This way, there won't be chances of our health care workers missing vaccine dates or any medicine dose,” Kumar said. The unique venture is part of a project that has been drawn up by the Bihar Innovation Lab, in collaboration with the Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS), with support from the Bihar government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, named after the founder of software giant Microsoft. According to the health secretary, the chips will enable the whole child's medical history “at the click of a button.” As part of the project, there will be facilities such as immunizing of children, labor process tracking that will also help pregnant women figure out how much time they have, before they deliver the baby, organizing health and nutrition days in villages, etc. Bihar is one of the most underdeveloped states' of India and has become synonymous with lawlessness, crime and poor health indicators. Along with Uttar Pradesh, another state in North India, Bihar has one of the highest population densities in the country, making it all the more imperative for the government to ensure a healthy population.
