Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) launched a multi-faceted website to create an enabling environment for tobacco control in the country. The web portal is the first of its kind on tobacco control in India that comprehensively offers training, resources and research evidence with regard to tobacco control. Short term online courses on tobacco control were also launched for health care professionals and other stakeholders to strengthen tobacco control initiatives in the country, to mark the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, here.
These on line short- term course on tobacco control have been launched to help build the capacity of working health professionals, law enforcement officers, legal professionals, administrators and journalists. According to Dr. K Srinath Reddy, President, PHFI, “these short courses will provide: understanding on patterns of tobacco use in India, knowledge on magnitude of the problem and best practices to control tobacco use. These courses are the latest offering from Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). PHFI is committed to providing public health education in India, in order to build public health capacity of the nation. In line with PHFI's vision, these short courses have been tailored to Indian scenario, while bringing international knowledge to India. The lectures have been adapted from materials provided by JHSPH (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Heath) and USC (University of Southern California). The current batch will train 70 students who have registered for online courses”
Five short courses are being offered online for distance learning for full time working professionals who want to make a difference in the communities through tobacco control. This will allow professionals to learn through modules at their own pace. These courses offer, first time ever, India specific lectures on tobacco control and prevention to help Indian professionals upgrade their knowledge and equip them with tobacco control skills which in turn can be integrated into their professional practices. The short courses will be of three months duration. These comprise of six to seven units covering major areas; fundamentals of tobacco control, health effects, tobacco control strategies, policies and legislation and tobacco economics related issues worldwide and in India. In addition, each course describes the role of respective professionals for which the course is designed in tobacco control. Every course will be offered twice in a year from June-August and February-April.
The web portal titled “Centre for Tobacco Control and Health Promotion” on the URL www.ctchp.org was launched under the aegis of project ‘Strengthening Tobacco Control Efforts through Innovative Partnership and Strategies (STEPS)’, which is being implemented in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Dr. Monika Arora, Head-Tobacco Control and Health Promotion at PHFI says, “with this new website, PHFI aims to initiate a ‘domain of discourse’ around tobacco control and strengthen tobacco control activities at the district, state and national level. This will provide access to materials on tobacco control in India, international best practices as well as published researches. It will provide an opportunity to highlight case-studies from India that would strengthen the evidence at the grassroots level for tobacco control activities”.
The e-courses will be provided under the new website launched today. Information related to national and international research work, Government documents including the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA) and related notifications, IEC materials, audio visuals, latest news and events related to tobacco control will be featured in the website. Its unique feature is that the website offers online opinion polls on pictorial health warnings for tobacco product packages and effectiveness results of proposed pictures can be used by the government as evidence based recommendations for notification under section 7 of COTPA.
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With the tobacco control efforts going on line and becoming India specific, this initiative of PHFI aims to reach the youth who are the most vulnerable to tobacco products. Globally, 5.4 million people die each year due to tobacco related illnesses. India has a major share in this global burden with more than a million deaths every year. Nearly 30% of cancers in India are related to tobacco use. High prevalence of oral smokeless tobacco use in India has resulted in so many oral cancer cases that India has become oral cancer capital of the world. While this effort of PHFI will strengthen the National Tobacco Control Programme in the country, it will also feature training films and resources on tobacco control to enable build capacities at the grassroots level, so that the programme could be taken to scale in the coming years.
