DRITHI
Developing Research and action capacity in India To counter Harm Industries
Duration of project
(2023 to 2028)
This research study aims to analyse the diverse trajectories of public policies related to the select psychoactive substances (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, opium) since the beginning of their industrial-scale production in India and the role played by the concerned ‘harm industries’ in shaping these policies. Further, this study will also engage with and contextualize the prevailing concepts (frameworks/models) about commercial determinants of health (CDOH) for India and promote its integration into health and policy research agenda/institutions
This study will be conducted using a retrospective case-oriented comparative design for analyzing public policies related to the commodities of interest using a range of qualitative methods including oral histories and a review of a range of primary and secondary sources of data. For contextualizing CDOH concepts and for promoting its use in India, we will be conducting a range of activities including a desk review of CDOH frameworks of relevance to low- and middle-income countries, a seminar series and outreach visits to health and policy research institutions/communities in India. Besides these, we propose specific strategies for public and policy engagements based on the findings of the proposed research.
This study is supported by the DBT/ Wellcome India Alliance Senior Clinical and Public Health Fellowship awarded to Upendra Bhojani.
Research Team
Dr.Upendra Bhojani, Faculty, Institute of Public Health Bengaluru
Mr.Achyutha N G, Research Manager
Mr.Anand Kumar, Research Officer
Ms. Ragavi Thirunavukarasu, Research Officer
Mr.Jeevan Shetty, Technical Officer
Mr.Yogin V A, Technical Officer
Mentors
Professor Fran Baum, Director Stretton Health Equity, University of Adelaide
Professor Anna Gilmore
Professor Atul Ambekar, AIIMS, New Delhi
Collaborators
Mr.Pranay Lal
Mr.C J Kuncheria, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
| Organized by | Engagement |
| The UNION | Speaker in a Webinar on “Technology and Tobacco Control: Challenges and Opportunities” |
| Resource Centre for Tobacco Control (RCTC), Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the Tobacco Control Section, The Union. | Speaker in international webinar “Tobacco Industry: A Deep Dive into Interference,” |
| ICMR – National Institute of Cancer Prevention & Research | Speaker in webinar on Commercial determinants of tobacco-related harms |
| NTCP Cell, Swathya Bhawan, Atal Nagar, Raipur Chhattisgarh, | Trainer in “State Level workshop for sensitization of identified state level stakeholders including senior government officials, national experts of increasing tobacco industry interference and need to develop state policy in complicate with FCTC Article 5.3” |
| MAHE, Manipal | Upendra Bhojani appointed as Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Commerce at the MAHE (Oct 2023). He will teach CDOH as part of the MSc Economics and will engage with students and faculty at MAHE for academic and research activities |
| National Law School of India University, Bengaluru | Presented in workshop on “Public Health and the Indian Constitution” |
| Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium | Displayed an art exhibit themed ‘Tobacco & Society’ comprising of six pencil-on-paper drawings with curated text locating tobacco within sociocultural and historical contexts. |
| Institute of Public Health Bengaluru | Participated in Consultation on Developing “Toolkit to assess the Tobacco Control Law Enforcement System” |
| The UNION | Panelist/ Presented in Webinar on “Driving Change Together: Multistakeholder Engagement for Tobacco Control in India” on the topic of Navigating Multistakeholder Synergies in Tobacco Control for an Evolving India |
| CTFK / NLSIU | Keynote address – Workshop on tobacco control – Panel discussion on “Stakeholder engagement towards creating tobacco free India” |
| MoHFW and JIPMER | Participated (ongoing) in the launch of the National Tobacco Regulatory Forum – put together by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Governmentr of India) and hosted at the JIPMER Puducherry |
| MoHFW and JIPMER | Have been made a Member of the expert group of the National Tobacco Regulatory Forum |
| Partners In Change | Presented on Commercial Determinants of Health and BRSR in the session titled “BRSR disclosures in the context of Public Health” as part of BRSR Commune 2.0 Just Transition through the lens of BRSR. |
| Institute of Public Health Bengaluru | Drithi Team was part of leadership development program titled “SPOORTHI”. The blended course offered new insights into leadership development of mid and early career researchers. |
| IIHMR Delhi and Salaam Bombay foundation | Presented 2 papers on tobacco |
| IIHMR Delhi and Salaam Bombay foundation | Displayed an art exhibit themed ‘Tobacco & Society’ comprising of six pencil-on-paper drawings with curated text locating tobacco within sociocultural and historical contexts. |
| AIIMS, Deoghar and The UNION | 4th Regional workshop on “Tobacco use among tribal and indigenous communities of India” |
| Vital Strategies and MANT, Kolkatta | Presented at the “National Dissemination Workshop on Documenting the Life Cycle of Bidi Trade and Bidi Industry Tactics” on the topic “Implications for bidi control in India” |
| MoHFW | Consultative Meeting to discuss the implementation of COTPA Amendment rules, 2023 |
| State Health and Family Welfare Department | Participated and gave inputs on Tobacco control in the state during the State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) meeting |
| NIMHANS and Ministry of Helath and FAmily Welfare, Govt of India | Presented on “Tobacco industry and tobacco control regulations” at the “National Workshop to Strengthen Tobacco Product Regulation in India” |
| State Health and Family Welfare Department | Meeting under chaimanship of MD-NHM Karnataka on scaling up of implementation of the School Awareness Programme under NTCP in Karnataka |
| AIIMS, Deoghar and The UNION | 5th workshop “Tobacco use among tribal and indigenous communities of India” |
| SATC Karnataka and RGUHS | Meeting on Scale up of Tobacco Cessation Services in Karnataka |
| PHFI | “Introduction to Tobacco Industry Interference” as part of the eCourse on Tobacco Control by the Public Health Foundation of India. |
| IPH Bengaluru, Sangath and CMHLP, Pune | Facilitated sessions in Early Career Researcher grant writing workshop organised in Pune. |
| PGI Chandigarh | “National Workshop on Implementation of WHO-MPOWER and FCTC Article 5.3,” |
| WHO Urban Health Unit | Webinar: Supporting a strategic approach to urban health |
| Resource Centre for Tobacco Control (RCTC), Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the Tobacco Control Section, The Union. | NAtional Summit on World No Tobacco Day 2024 -“Protecting Children from tobacco industry interference” |
| Vital Strategies, Department of PUblic Health – Chennai, and Mary Anne Charitable Trust – Chennai. | 12th National Workshop to strengthen WHO MPOWER policies in India |
| AIIMS Deogarh | “Tobacco Use among Tribal and Indigenous Communities of India: Reflecting on our progress and the path forward” |
| AIIMS Deogarh | 1st National Conference on Tobacco use among tribal communities |
| AIIMS Deogarh | Intervention related to tobacco industry and tribal communities in the 1st National Conference on Tobacco use among Tribal Communities |
| IHCRF | Spoke about CDOH addressing the Indian Climate and Health Risiliance fellows (IHCR). |
| IIHS, Bengaluru | Dr. Upendra bhojani presented on public health in a workshop titled ” Urban Sustainability, Climate Resilience, and Fiscal Strengthening of Local Governments – A Focus on Bengaluru” convened by the Fifth Karnataka State Finance Commission and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). |
| JIPMER School of Public Health | Dr. Upendra conducted half a day CDOH workshop to faculty and students of JIPMER School of public health. |
| JIPMER and ICMR, New Delhi | Dr. Upendra was resource person in a workshop organized by ICMR New Delhi and Department of emergency medicine and trauma, JIPMER – Puducherry. |
| Rajasthan Cancer Foundation Jaipur, Strategic Institute of Public Health Education and Research (SIPHER) and ECHO- India in collaboration with E-RCTC – PGI Chandigarh and Healist | Dr. Upendra Bhojani, spoke in National Consultation to modify the terminology to address “Endgame for Tobacco” as “Endgame for Nicotine in India” |
| PGI Chandigarh | Dr. Upendra Bhojani facilitated one of the sessions in 7 days 5th Public Health Policy and Management Program |
| PGI Chandigarh | Displayed an art exhibit themed ‘Tobacco & Society’ comprising of six pencil-on-paper drawings with curated text locating tobacco within sociocultural and historical contexts. |
| PGI Chandigarh | Dr. Upendra conducted CDOH Workshop for faculty and students at PGI Chandigarh |
| GDC | CDOH Workshop was conducted to faculty of Govt Dental College in Goa |
| Sangath | CDOH Workshop was conducted to faculty of Sangath at Goa |
| IPH Bengaluru | Dr. Upendra moderated a webinar session on Realist Evalution organised by IPH bengaluru. |
| RCTC- PGI Chandigarh, Vital Strategies and GDC Goa. | Dr. Upendra participated in regional consultation for key stakeholder of NTCP, to develop roadmap for its effective implementation. |
| Govt of Karnataka and Vital Strategies. | 4th National consultation on Emerging challenges and opportunities in Tobacco Control |
| NIMHANS | Displayed an art exhibit themed ‘Tobacco & Society’ comprising of six pencil-on-paper drawings with curated text locating tobacco within sociocultural and historical contexts. |
Arora M, Sumanasekara P, Chugh A, Hebbar P, Bhojani U, Chopra M, Mohanty V. Chapter 7: Public health approaches to tobacco control. In Arora M, Goenka S (eds) Public health approaches to health promotion. Boca Raton: CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group); 2024 p. 47-59
Hebbar PB, Bhojani U, Schayck OV, Babu G, Dsouza V, Nagelhout GE. Shifting the gaze on implementation: examining the association between the implementation of tobacco control laws and prevalence of tobacco using data from a nationally representative survey. BMC Public Health 2024; 23(1):1971 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16780-8. PMCID: PMC10568881
Hebbar P, Dsouza V, Nagelhout GE, Van Belle S, Prashanth NS, Van Schayck OCP, Babu GR, Bhojani U. The system doesn’t work, it is the individuals who (make it) work” – A realist evaluation of the implementation of a national tobacco control program and policy in India https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czae081
Shriyan P, Basappa YC, Babu GR, Seshadri T, Karthik M, Bhojani U, Bhat D, Shapeti SS, Srini PN. CHIGURU Adivasi Birth Cohort Study: A Protocol for Examining the Effects of Parental Substance Use on Child Development in Southern Indian Adivasi Communities. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3897825/v1