State Health Society, Patna, has set the ball rolling for setting up early intervention hubs for children in nine districts following the Centre's directive.

The society has sent emails to the district chief medical officers concerned to provide 5,500sqft land in Munger, Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Purnea and Saran within 24 hours for setting up the intervention hubs. The Centre had asked the state government to set up nine early intervention centres to screen development delays and disabilities in children and to treat them.

Dr R.N. Dwivedi, the state nodal officer, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, State Health Society (Sheikhpura, Patna), told The Telegraph on Tuesday: 'The district early intervention centre is a place, where a group of therapists would tackle childhood disabilities through early identification of developmental delays and disabilities and early interventions to prevent these conditions from turning permanent or debilitating.'

He added: 'The centres would have a special team of a doctor, paediatrician, dental hygienist, audiologist, speech therapist, psychologist, optometrist and a special educator/social worker, who would screen children for developmental delays or disabilities, suggest and intervene with referral support to those who may need a higher level of medical intervention. National Rural Health Mission is now in the process of appointing these specialists on contract basis as the health system does not have adequate personnel.'

Dr Dwivedi said: 'Child health screening and early intervention services under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) envisages covering 30 select health conditions, including neural tube defects, Down's Syndrome, congenital heart diseases, deficiencies and developmental delays involving cognitive, language, motor delays, hearing/vision impairment and autism.'

Describing the importance of the centres, Dr Dwivedi said: 'When it comes to neuro developmental delays and conditions such as cerebral palsy or autism, the public health system has been helpless because the identification and management of these conditions are time-consuming. Our doctors are not trained to do this. The maximum brain development occurs in a child in the first two years and by failing to identify neuro developmental delays during this period, we lose the window of opportunity to help the child.'