IITF health pavilion: TB screening, CPR demos and a screen-free kids’ zone in Delhi

A visitor to the India International Trade Fair in New Delhi can be checked for tuberculosis with a handheld X-ray machine, speak to a medical officer and watch how CPR is done, while the children play traditional games away from screens. All of it sits inside the IITF health pavilion, which the Union Health Ministry opened at Bharat Mandapam on Saturday, 14 November.

NITI Aayog member Dr M. Srinivas inaugurated the pavilion. Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava attended, along with Dr Rajiv Bahl, who is Secretary of the Department of Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, and Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority. Srinivas spoke of the rising weight of non-communicable and lifestyle illnesses, and urged people to catch them early and get treated in time.

What is inside Hall 4

The pavilion takes up 989 square metres in Hall No. 4, at ground level. Its 39 stalls belong to 24 national programmes and health bodies, the Health Ministry said, and its theme is “Yuva Bharat, Swasth Bharat” (Young India, Healthy India).

Tuberculosis, the Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and HLL Lifecare have three stalls each, the largest share. At the TB stall, people can also enrol as Ni-kshay Mitras, individuals or organisations who back people with TB, for instance with nutritional food baskets. Street plays, magic shows and a TB mascot carry the message on early diagnosis and nutrition.

The National Health Authority, which runs the Ayushman Bharat health cover, has two stalls, as do the food regulator FSSAI, the Tele-MANAS mental health line and the national organ transplant programme. The telemedicine service, eSanjeevani, and the Indian Red Cross Society have one apiece. CPR is demonstrated live, and quizzes and health talk shows fill the programme. The Kids’ Zone keeps screens out almost entirely and relies on traditional games.

A fair that takes days

The pavilion is one part of a fair spread across Bharat Mandapam. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal opened the 45th IITF on Friday, 13 November. States and Union Territories, over 30 of them, are taking part, with upwards of 3,500 exhibitors and 11 countries, and a Hall of Inspiration displays 600 startups. Goyal said visitors should keep two to three days aside to see everything; an IITF mobile app lists the exhibitors and helps people find their way round.

The India Trade Promotion Organisation runs the fair, and it closes on Friday, 27 November.