Training
Two hours, and a phone
The instrument is only as good as the visit. This is the module used to train ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and RBSK team members on RD-T1 — designed to be delivered at a sub-centre with no projector and patchy signal.
1 · Two-hour module
0–15 min
Why ten questions
One in every few hundred children carries a condition that is rare on its own and common in the aggregate. You are not being asked to diagnose it. You are being asked to notice it and to pass it on.
15–45 min
The ten clusters, read aloud
Read every Hindi line out loud, in the family's own words if the dialect differs. Watch the child while the mother answers. Ask the follow-up only when the answer is yes.
45–75 min
Recording what you saw
Write what you observed, not what you concluded. 'Falls when climbing the step, holds the wall' is useful. 'Weakness, maybe muscular' is not — it invites the doctor to agree with you instead of examining.
75–100 min
The conversation with the family
Say: something was noticed, a doctor should look at it properly, most children turn out fine. Never name a disease, never promise a cure, never say it is nothing.
100–120 min
Practice and the slip
Two role-play cases on the tool itself, print the slip, and enter both in the tracker. End with the phone number of the DEIC written on the register.
2 · The critical flags — know these cold
Any one of these sends the child to Priority A on its own. A trainee should be able to recite them without the tool in hand.
01 The child has lost a skill they already had — sitting, walking, speaking, or using their hands.
02 Another child in the family died young without a clear cause, or there were repeated pregnancy losses.
05 Admitted to hospital more than once with vomiting, drowsiness or unconsciousness — often after fever or going without food.
08 Muscles getting weaker over time — trouble climbing stairs, pushes on the thighs to stand up, falls often.
3 · Five things never to do
- ✕Never name a condition. The slip names flags, not diseases.
- ✕Never say the child has 'no problem' because the checklist is empty — say the checklist found nothing today.
- ✕Never enter a child's ABHA ID because a supervisor asked. It is optional, always.
- ✕Never mark a flag you were told about but could not see, without writing that in the note.
- ✕Never hand over the slip without the DEIC phone number on it.