Gender equity, community participation key to fight diabetes, high BP in India: Experts

New Delhi, Dec 12 Gender equity and community participation are essential to combat the rising cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, high BP in India, said experts here on Friday.

NCDs, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and obesity, are responsible for 65 per cent of deaths in India.

“Community participation has helped improve infrastructure, service delivery, and health awareness, even in remote regions where challenges are many. We have seen that empowering local leaders and women to take part in planning and monitoring creates ownership and lasting change,” said Dr. Thomas Keppen, Nagaland - Deputy Director, Department of Health and Family Welfare, at an event held in the national capital.

Keppen suggested boosting community-based approaches and documenting progress regularly to make systems more transparent and sustainable.

The annual Evidence2Policy dialogue, organised by The George Institute for Global Health, India, sparked conversations around bridging the "know-do gap" in public health policy implementation.

“Equity in NCD care is not only about women, but it is also about reaching men and every section of the community. When healthcare is taken closer to people, women come forward to seek care, but we must also find ways to engage men,” said Dr. Sumit Malhotra, Professor, Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi.

Malhotra stressed the need to strengthen community health workers, with regular medicine supplies, and improve linkages between different levels of care to make the health system more responsive and fairer.

The health officials also underscored the importance of data-driven decision-making, equity-oriented health policies, and strengthening health systems to ensure universal access without financial hardship.

Meanwhile, the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), a population-based initiative for prevention, control, and screening for common NCDs, has been rolled out in the country under the National Health Mission (NHM) and also as a part of CPHC.

“Population-based screening helps in better management of diseases by the way of early stage of detection, follow-up, and treatment adherence,” the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, shared in the Parliament.

“A total of 39.79 crore screenings for hypertension, 39.60 crore for diabetes, 33.57 crore for oral cancer, 15.72 crore for breast cancer have been carried out at all health facilities till November 30,” he added, citing data from the NP-NCD portal.

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