Anushthana: Scaling Implementation of Tobacco Control Laws
This is a research study that aims to understand how to enhance and scale implementation of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) in India. It’s been
This study is supported through India Alliance early-career clinical and public health fellowship awarded to Pragati Hebbar.
Anushthana Team
- Dr. Pragati Hebbar, Principal Investigator, PhD Scholar, and DBT/WellCome Trust India Alliance Early Career Fellow
- Vivek Dsouza, Research Officer
- Praveen Rao, Communications Consultant
- Kumaran P, Consultant- Communities of Practice
Funding Agency
PhD promoters:
Gera Nagelhout, Department of Health Promotion, Maastricht University
(CAPHRI) Constant ‘Onno’ Van Schayck, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht
University (CAPHRI)
Dr. Giridhar Babu, Head-Lifecourse Epidemiology, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) & Intermediate Fellow, Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance
Dr. Upendra Bhojani, Director, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru
Collaborators:
Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, MS (Dental Surgery), Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai
Dr. Pratima Murthy, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
Dr. US Vishal Rao, MS (Otolaryngology), Member, High Power Committee on Tobacco Control, Government of Karnataka
Nikhil Gokani, Deputy Director, Law, and Non-Communicable Diseases Unit. Researcher, School of Law and Social Justice, Essex University, Liverpool, UK.
Mentors:
Dr. Prakash C Gupta, Director, PhD, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public
Health.
Dr. Prashanth NS, PhD, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru.
Fellowship Supervisor and Primary sponsor:
Dr. Upendra Bhojani, PhD, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru.External Sponsor:
Dr. Sara Van Belle, PhD, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp.
1. Publication
- Implementation research for taking tobacco control policies to scale in India: a realist evaluation study protocol
- Beyond numbers, coverage, and cost: adaptive governance for post-COVID-19 reforms in India
- Healthcare delivery in India amid the Covid-19 pandemic: Challenges and opportunities
- Affirmative action, minorities, and public services in India: Charting a future research and practice agenda
- LifeFirst: Impact of a school-based tobacco and supari cessation intervention among adolescent students in Mumbai, India
2. Workshops
3. Webinars
The webinars provide a platform and encourage dialogue amongst researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and implementers to address and provide solutions to complex public health problems related to tobacco control especially the implementation of tobacco control policies.
These webinars specifically engage with the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes, and aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the National Tobacco Control Program (NTCP), its progress and impact on health outcomes, and challenges/barriers in its implementation across various states in India.
EPISODE 1: Youth and Tobacco Control Policies in India
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUTksBH6Wxs&list=PLwN9jZa2UU_HWrfunMdy8lCX4Zb52lB85&index=1
EPISODE 2: Implementing Ban on Tobacco Advertisements, Promotions, and Sponsorships
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5AB4iGTe8&list=PLwN9jZa2UU_HWrfunMdy8lCX4Zb52lB85&index=2
EPISODE 3: Prohibition of smoking in public places – implementation experiences
Episode 4: Role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Tobacco Control
Episode 5: How Does Research Shape Tobacco Control Policies In India?
Conference Presentations
We participated in 12 national and international conferences and shared our work through eight oral and poster presentations.
Cluster updates
Paper on Parliamentary Questions Related to Tobacco in India
Dr. Upendra Bhojani, co-authored a paper in the BMJ Global Health, along with Amiti Varma & Latha Chilgod of the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru. This is the first peer-reviewed paper from the DEEP project titled “Diverse and competing interests around...
India Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2020
Led by Dr. Upendra Bhojani and Adhip Amin from IPH, the India Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2020 report has been produced through a collaborative work of several institutions and individuals active in tobacco control research and practice in India. The report...
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.
Duration of project
(2018-2023)
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