His Holiness Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar is well known for his PEACE and other initiatives. He is the founder of Art of Living. Recently he was in the Cradle Bangalore to inaugurate the Neontal Screening Programme. It is an ESSENTIAL PUBLIC HEALTH PREVENTION PROGRAMME. It has been there in the western countries for the last 40 years!! Though it was launched in the Cradle Bangalore - it was the desire of Guruji and Dr. Kishore Kumar that it should be available for the common public - as Indian babies are no less deserving than any western baby Currently. Unfortunately 5% of our HEALTHY Newborn babies die WITHIN the first month of life for causes thought to be related to infections - most of these are preventable deaths.
Neonatal Screening Programme aims to "identify" those babies who can get sick and die or suffer brain damage at birth EVEN before they become sick - so that they can be stopped from being sick. It has not been made available in India so far because of lack of awareness of general public + financial commitments from people involved. Future Kidz - a non-governmental organization - started in 2006 by Dr. Kishore Kumar, a renowned global Pediatrician having qualified and worked in 4 continents including India , UK , USA and Australia - is committed to improving the health standards of all children in India They launched this under Guruji's blessings earlier this week in the premises of the Cradle Bangalore . It is a simple test from ONE drop of blood on the second day of life - taken on a filter paper and then tested for just over 40 preventable and treatable causes of death and disability - by specialized technique called TANDEM MASS SPECTROMETRY (TMS or called popularly MS/MS).
The cost of this test is less than the cost of immunizing a child. Sri Sri Ravishankar feels that this should be ideally available in government hospitals with immediate effect.
The Cradle is at # 1533, 9th Main, 3rd Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore.
