Health Promoting Schools In India: A concept in Action

¿Health promotion is a process of enabling people to increase the control over, and to improve, their health¿. The Ottawa charter of health promotion 1986 was a major milestone in the direction of health promotion. It focused on health promotion actions which meant building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills and reorienting health services. Based on these five principles, comprehensive and holistic health promotion in schools has started in some European countries in early 1990s. The health promotion school concept was adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1995, as a part of setting based approach of health education in schools. The goal is to increase the number of schools that can truly be called "Health-Promoting Schools". It links democracy, participation and health, and had gained acceptance as one of the most powerful approaches to promoting health all over the world. A Health-Promoting School can be characterized as a school constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.