The second round of National Deworming Day (NDD) will be held today in 33 States and Union Territories to tackle worm Infections, targeting more than 11 crore children. <br/><br/>Health Ministry has said, a total of 7.8 crore children are targeted in private schools and 3.5 crore out of school children will be covered through Anganwadi workers and ASHAs. <br/><br/>This will be followed by mop-up activities a week later on 17th of August during which 31 crore children will be targeted. <br/><br/>The National Deworming Day programme, NDD was launched in 2015. World Health Organisation estimates that 220 million children below 14 years in India are at risk of soil-transmitted helminthiasis infections. <br/><br/>The day is organised twice in a year covering all the children from one to nineteen years of age except Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where deworming is carried out once in a year. All the children are provided deworming tablet in schools and anganwadis. <br/><br/>The first round of NDD was observed in February 2015 and 8.9 crore children were administered the deworming tablet across 11 states and Union territories by achieving 85 per cent coverage. <br/><br/>The Ministry has said that the deworming has the potential to improve the nutritional status of children and the deworming tablet, Albendazole, is a safe and efficacious drug.