HealthSetGo: Building India's largest network of health promoting schools

The NCD issue

Childhood obesity is threatening to turn into an epidemic in India, with some 14.4 million children reportedly living with obesity. A lack of physical activity, stress, and unhealthy diets contribute to the issue. On average, children in India spend 3–7 hours studying and another 3.5 hours watching television or streaming services daily, while consuming unhealthy foods twice a week. They only spend some 45 minutes per week physically active, and many additionally show high stress levels. Of the more than 200 000 schools in India, fewer than 2% have a health programme, lacking capacity, know-how, and financial resources.

The innovation

HealthSetGo combines a data-driven eHealth approach, student leadership, and innovative financing into a comprehensive school-based health programme. Using latest digital technology to record health data, parents are able to track and support their children’s health journey following the advice of health professionals. Market-based pricing and an insurance cover for each student makes the programme both affordable for schools and financially sustainable. Students in participating schools are additionally encouraged to lead thematic wellness clubs on nutrition, mental health and hygiene.

The plan

In HealthSetGo partner schools, a qualified team of doctors assesses children for more than 90 physical and anthropometric parameters including eye and dental checks. A detailed medical report is registered online and available to parents with matching recommendations. Parents can also track their child’s vaccinations and visits to the school health centre. Meanwhile, students are encouraged to join and lead wellness clubs or engage in special modules such as the 21-day challenge encouraging children to build health and hygiene skills. Each enrolled student benefits from a yearly US$ 1,600 insurance cover, and HealthSetGo directly supports health centres in selected schools with medical staff.

The impact

Over the last six years, HealthSetGo has made preventive health services and health education affordable and accessible for more than 250,000 students across 77+ cities in India. The program has helped detect health issues and risk factors such as obesity, and directly increased students’ awareness on nutrition, physical activity, mental health and hygiene. HealthSetGo now aims to reach 1 million students by 2024, and 10 million by 2030.

• Download this project's one-page overview (PDF)

This NCD Lab project was the winning submission in the category NCDs and the Next Generation. The project was submitted to the third NCD Lab cycle by project founder Priya Prakash.

NCD Lab feature video