Chronic Health Conditions & Public Policies
Chronic conditions are the health issues that require ongoing management over a period of years or decades. They include chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) but also a few communicable diseases and conditions (like disabilities) that lasts longer. The chronic conditions are on the rise globally and in India, where it has become a leading cause of deaths and disabilities.
PRIORITIES
TOBacco control
Road safety
Multisectoral Actions for Health
Tobacco Control
In India, 28.6% of adults and 14.6% of youth – in total over 26.7 crores (~ 266 million) are the current users of tobacco in some form. Tobacco use causes over 12.8 lakh (~1.2 million) deaths every year in India. Total economic cost from all the diseases caused by tobacco use in India in a year is estimated to be INR 104500 crore (~ 1045 billion). Tobacco use is a common major risk factor for chronic conditions, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. This thematic explores empirical ways to reduce tobacco use in India and the associated health, economic and ecologic burden.
Current Projects

DRITHI:Developing Research and action capacity in India To counter Harm Industries

REALISE:Realist Evaluation Advancement Lab for Implementation Strategy Explanations
Past Projects

Deciphering Epidemic of Epic Proportion

Anushtana: Scaling Implementation of Tobacco Control Laws

Comprehensive Tobacco Control Karnataka

Youth and On-screen Tobacco Use – Value of Media Rating System

Tobacco-Free Youth (TOFY): an initiative in rural Karnataka

Youth and Tobacco Use

Tobacco and Political Concerns
Road Safety
Nearly 90% of all road fatalities occur in low- and middle- income countries, which have less than half of the world’s vehicles. In India, one road crash happens each minute and one life is lost to road crashes every four minutes – with over 150000 individuals losing their lives in road crashes each year. Under this thematic, we explore how to strengthen policies for road safety and their implementation at different levels.

Safer roads Bengaluru

Advocacy for stronger road safety and transport legislation in India
Multisectoral Actions for Health
Health is seen as a dynamic state of physical, mental and social well-being. Health, especially at a population level, is impacted by several social, economic, environmental, cultural and political factors. Hence, enhancing population health requires coordinated actions across sectors, beyond just the healthcare sector. This thematic explores ways of engendering multisectoral actions for health and promoting health through public policies across different sectors (health-in all policy approach).

Health-in All and the Tribal Population in South India

Health-in All Policy and NCDs

Health-in All Policy and Tobacco Control
Updates
Ketki Shah – Doctoral Fellowship (DBT/WT India Alliance)
Ketki Shah received a doctoral fellowship under the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance project led by Dr. Upendra Bhojani. She has registered her PhD in December 2020 at The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU). At TDU, her PhD is...
6th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research
Amiti Varma from the DEEP project presented a paper on “Situating tobacco in health policy: Using parliament as an instrument of accountability” at the 6th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (8 - 12 November, 2020). She presented findings from an analysis of...
IPH Representation in South Asia Regional Consortium, SARC
Dr. Upendra Bhojani was invited to be a member of a Technical Advisory Panel for the South Asian Regional Consortium Centre for Combating Tobacco (SARC-CCT), Colombo. Other members of the Technical Advisory Panel include Dr. Rana J Singh, Prof. Stella Bialous, Dr....
Consultancy project with the State Anti-Tobacco Cell, Gov of Karnataka
In a project commissioned by the State Anti-Tobacco Cell (Dept Health and Family Welfare Services, GOK), Riddhi and Upendra, researchers at the DEEP project at IPH, with the help of intern Neema Joseph, historically mapped and analyzed various tobacco-related litigations in Karnataka high court in order to identify the stakeholders as well as common laws/arguments used by these stakeholders in shaping tobacco regulations in Karnataka.
LifeFirst – Consultancy Project with Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation
A team from the Chronic Health Conditions and Public Policies cluster at IPH had undertaken a consultancy project with Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation and Salaam Bombay Foundation. This project involved the evaluation of the LifeFirst program, a standardized tobacco- and...
National Summit on Tobacco or Health – 2020
On May 29th, 2020 the National Summit was held virtually, the main theme was on “Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use” , and organised “by Resource Centre for Tobacco Control (E-RCTC), PGIMER Chandigarh in...