Education minister kicks off statewide campaign to train 2 lakh school, college teachers in CPR

“It is the moral duty of every citizen to save a person’s precious life. CPR is a technique that can save a person’s precious life in the first 5 to 10 minutes. Continuous awareness campaigns are being conducted by the state government regarding CPR training. Earlier, training was also given to the personnel of the police department, as a result of which many lives are being saved today against heart attack,” Education Minister Kuber Dindor said while inaugurating the training session. The campaign will be conducted in two phases. After the first phase kicked off Sunday, the next phase kicks off on December 17.

Earlier, Dindor had said that Gujarat would become the first state to provide mass CPR training to its teachers after police personnel. More than two lakh teachers in all government and aided schools and colleges of the state are set to be given CPR training.

The teachers will be trained by more than 2,500 doctors and medical professionals at 37 medical colleges across the state from 10 am to 6 pm. Those who get trained will be awarded certificates.

While announcing the training campaign, Dindor on Friday claimed that in the last six months, 1,052 people have died due to heart attacks in Gujarat, among which 80 per cent were in the 11-25 age group.

“They had no tension or stress and they were not even obese. With the increasing number of such incidents in the last year, 108 emergency services are getting 173 cardiac calls per day. With more youths dying due to cardiac arrests, there is a fear among them. Through this CPR training, the fear will be reduced,” he added.

When asked about the source of his data, Dindor had told The Indian Express, “This is not health department or government data. This is what has been heard in television debates and newspaper reports. What I implied is that we have seen in various cases that many youngsters are dying due to cardiac arrests. So, CPR training is important.”

Later in the day, when mediapersons asked Health Minister Rushikesh Patel about Dindor’s claim, he said he was “not aware” of the numbers cited.