PGI Chandigarh organizes a 3-day workshop on Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases
Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health organized a “Capacity building workshop on Multi-sectoral Action Plan (MSAP) for prevention & control of Non-communicable Diseases”. Twenty delegates from the Govt of Punjab attended the three-day workshop with observers from across the country. Mr. Vikas Verma Regional Head, North Region, UNDP, India, was the Chief Guest. Dr. Rajesh Kumar; Dr. Manmeet Kaur; Dr. Keerti Pradhan; Dr.Preethi John; Dr. D.R. Sahu; Dr. Shankar; and Dr. B.K Padhi were among the key facilitators.
The workshop began with an inaugural address from Mr. Vikas Verma. He welcomed all the delegates and asked them to leave aside their titles to embed and commit to developing such a plan to resolve the problem of concerned people. Intersectoral collaboration is the key to resolve all the problems.
Dr. Padhi introduced participants to the aim and objectives of the workshop. Workshop aimed to strengthen multisectoral action in a member state by setting intersectoral convergence.
Dr. Manmeet Kaur began a technical session on Advocacy for Multisectoral Action for NCDs. She introduced delegates to NCDs and the national as well as the global burden of NCDs. Dr. Manmeet Kaur further highlighted the major behavioural risk factors about non-communicable diseases. The struggles developing countries are facing to manage this burden of NCDs was also discussed by Dr. M Kaur.
The session was further up taken by Dr. Rajesh Kumar. He emphasized the microeconomic impact of NCDs on any country’s development. He highlighted, NCDs are a problem of both rich as well as poor countries. So, he further talked about the contribution of a healthy population to the country’s economy.
Further, a panel discussion was conducted that was moderated by Dr. Preethi John, Director, Chitkara University. The discussion was majorly done to analyse the challenges and find focus areas for MSAP. The major concern discussed among participants is that screen time among children has increased during the last three to four years and it is leading to major problems among children. To cope with these problems, Mr. Bhullar, representative of the Rural Development Department highlighted the importance of their role in maintaining health, He mentioned that in villages of Punjab their department is providing playgrounds and open-air gyms for the general public which is increasing the physical activity of the population. Hence, directly contributing to improving and maintaining health.
A representative from the education sector stated that they have started yoga in all the education centers due to govt. influence for promoting yoga which will directly improve the health of the students.
The next technical session was delivered by Dr. Keerti Bhushan Pradhan. The topic of his session was Sector-Specific Situational Analysis. The root cause analysis of NCDs was well explained by Dr. Pradhan. He further asked sector-specific experts to give their opinions on the current situation of NCDs.
