Indian Academy of Public Health (IAPH)

The 170^th meeting of the Central Council of IPHA held at the Conference hall of YMCA guest house Pune on 4^th June 2016 (Saturday) at 10.00 hr to 17.00 hr& 5^th June 2016 (Sunday) at 09.00 hr. to 13.00 hr and Agenda 3 Indian Academy of Public Health (IAPH) was discussed.

Dr. Umesh Kapil, Chairman, IAPH reiterated that in India, there are many Public Health Issues on which expert advice is required by the Government to develop the National and State Policies related to Public Health. The IAPH can provide technical assistance and guidance on the public health issue to the Government under the umbrella of Indian Public Health Association (IPHA).

IPHA has nearly 8,000 members who are eminent in their respective fields. There are many members working on narrow thematic areas and they provide scientific expert opinion to the Government and other National and International bodies in their individual capacity. He proposed to work out with formation of National Chapters for some identified public health issues with a convener for each of these chapters. These chapters would have independence in their working but will work as in line with the objectives of IPHA.

IAPH chairperson will facilitate forming the chapters. There is a need to bring convergence of expertise of members of IAPH in different fields like Immunization, Adolescent Health, Communicable Disease, Non-Communicable Disease, Mental Health, Nutrition, Undergraduate and Post-graduate curriculum. It was decided that President and Secretary of IPHA will be ex-officio members of all committee, and Chairperson Academy will be the Mentor of all the chapters.

Each Chapter would work on academic issues related to their theme. The national convener would have freedom to undertake academic activities of his/her Chapter. Each of the National Chapter of IAPH would work independently on the academic issues. The consensus statement developed by the Members of each of the National Chapter on Public Health issues related to their theme will be developed by the Convener and would be shared with all members of his/her Chapters. This would be submitted to the Central/State Governments, after approval from Central Council IPHA.

The following decisions were taken.

1. The Central Council approved the constituting of National Chapters on various themes of Public Health. National Chapters would have members of IAPH who have expertise and interest in a particular area of Public Health.
2. All the members of IPHA will have freedom to join any number of National Chapters
3. The Secretary General would send the information to all the IPHA Members through email and through Indian Journal of Public Health about constitution of National Chapters on various thematic issues along with the names of National Convener
4. The Chairperson of Indian Academy of Public Health will provide mentorship to each of the above National Chapters.
5. The IAPH should have an Advisory Committee which should provide guidance, assistance and review the functioning of IAPH. It was decided that to expedite the functioning of IAPH, the Central Council of Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) can take up a role of IAPH Advisory Committee till March 2017. During this period, the IAPH will constitute its advisory committee and submit to Central Council of IPHA for its approval.
6. As per the norms of IPHA, IAPH committee will be formed and convener for the of the national chapters will be selected from the names proposed by the members.
7. It was approved that IAPH should constitute following National Chapters. The names of the Convener of the National Chapters were also approved.

 Name of Chapters                                     Convener

1. Communicable Disease                         Dipika Sur
2. Non-Communicable Disease                Anand Krishnan
3. HIV and AIDS                                         Shashi Kant
4. Immunization                                         ChanderkantLahariya
5. Adolescent Health                                  Jugal Kishore & Dr. Khurshid Muzammil
6. Nutrition                                                  Rajesh Kumar
7. Geriatrics                                                 Rakesh Kakkar & Dr. Arvind Mathur (Rajasthan)
8. Environment and Climate Change     Arunava Majumdar
9. Child Health                                            Sunil Nag
10. Occupational Health                             Pankaj Raghav
11. Maternal Health                                    K. K. Das (Orissa)
12. Family Welfare                                      Sarswati Sinha
13. Undergraduate/Postgraduate/Dip   Sumit Dasgupta & Sai Shankar Prathap

Minutes of IPHA