‘Safe balcony, safe child’: AIIMS launches new campaign

Dr Deepak Gupta, Professor of Neurosurgery at AIIMS, said balcony railing height should be made “twice the height of children in the family”. “Children often end up climbing the railing of the house in the balcony unprotected and fall over – many such children die or sustain severe head injuries. Such deaths and injuries are completely preventable,” he said.

According to the epidemiological study conducted among children less than 16 years of age at AIIMS, a total of 1,000 children with head injuries were admitted at AIIMS trauma centre over a period of four years, Dr Shefali Gulati, Professor of Paediatric Neurology said.

“Boys were two times more affected with head injuries than girls and over 60% of them were due to fall from height/balcony,” Dr Gulati, who is the other author of the study, said.

Dr Gupta added that most such children came from low socio-economic families where one of the parents was away at work and the other parent was elsewhere when the accident happened. “Through this campaign, we want this message of ‘Safe Balcony and Safe Child’ to reach each and every household having children aged below 10 years,” he said.

As part of the campaign, doctors plan to visit schools, interact with students, parents, and teachers and also hold various seminars and competitions. “We would want more people to join us and make it a national campaign,” Dr Gupta said.