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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 6
| Issue : 1 | Page : 1-3 |
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Global Health and Wellness Initiative of World Noncommunicable Disease Federation – Play, Laugh, and Grow (Indian version: Khelo, Hasso Aur Hasao, Badho Aur Badhao, India)
JS Thakur
Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGIMER; President, World Noncommunicable Disease (NCD) Federation, Chandigarh, India
| Date of Submission | 27-Mar-2021 |
| Date of Decision | 01-Apr-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 05-Apr-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 21-Apr-2021 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. J S Thakur
Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jncd.jncd_14_21
How to cite this article:
Thakur J S. Global Health and Wellness Initiative of World Noncommunicable Disease Federation – Play, Laugh, and Grow (Indian version: Khelo, Hasso Aur Hasao, Badho Aur Badhao, India). Int J Non-Commun Dis 2021;6:1-3 |
How to cite this URL:
Thakur J S. Global Health and Wellness Initiative of World Noncommunicable Disease Federation – Play, Laugh, and Grow (Indian version: Khelo, Hasso Aur Hasao, Badho Aur Badhao, India). Int J Non-Commun Dis [serial online] 2021 [cited 2023 Mar 26];6:1-3. Available from: https://www.ijncd.org/text.asp?2021/6/1/1/314208 |
In 2015, World Noncommunicable Disease (NCD) Federation (WNF) was conceived as a professional association in India to curb the issue of NCDs at a global level. Since then, the federation has been engaged as a contributor in generating pool of professionals toward prevention and control of NCDs through Public Health Approaches for Global NCD Agenda.
Recently, stepping forward to mainstreaming health promotion and engaging the general public to mitigate the epidemic of NCDs, the WNF has launched its global health and wellness endeavor named PLAY, LAUGH, AND GROW. In India, the campaign has been launched as KHELO, HASSO AUR HASAO, BADHO AUR BADHAO, India.
The idea behind conceiving this initiative is based on the fact that about 70%–80% of NCDs (diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and chronic lung diseases) are preventable, still the world is dealing with rapidly growing epidemic of these diseases. Developing world is especially fighting hard to deal with the triple burden of diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the provision of services to the patients suffering from NCDs suffered a lot and many were deprived of the necessary services due to factors including lockdowns, shifted focus of the health-care delivery services, and shortage of human resource to manage regular health-care services.
Component of health promotion holds a significant place in prevention and control of NCDs among three pillars identified by the World Health Organization (WHO). This requires a multisectoral action and collaboration from both service providers and receivers as societal responsibility. Keeping this in mind, the Global Health and Wellness Initiative is based on “whole of the society, whole of the government” approach to promote component of health promotion.
Recently, the Indian version of initiative themed as “Khelo, Hasso aur Hasao, Badho aur Badhao” was launched by Ms. Vandana Gurnani, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, on March 2, 2021. In her inaugural speech, she endorsed the indigenization of the global campaign and stated that the Indian theme of campaign is very much topical and pertinent in the challenging times of COVID-19 where a complete multisectoral response for health is required with all sectors joining hands to ensure a healthy India. To increase the acceptance of initiative among general population and promoting civil society participation, Flying Sikh, Mr. Milkha Singh has now become the brand ambassador of WNF and this campaign as well. Mr. Vishal Chauhan, Joint Secretary, NCD, MoHFW, India, also appreciated the initiative with a focus on health promotion and multisectoral participation while presiding over panel discussion on March 6, 2021.
To spread the mass awareness about initiative among various stakeholders, a public forum was organized on March 6, 2021, where representatives from stakeholders, health-care sector, mass communication, Chandigarh administration, faculty of nutrition, and yoga were invited as panelists to start exchange of ideas. Prof. Sunil Kumar, Director General Health Services (DGHS), MoHFW, appreciated innovative initiative and released a film on the campaign having message from prominent dignitaries including Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER, Chandigarh, Ms. Vandana Gurnani, and Mr. Milkha Singh. He mentioned that health promotion should be incorporated as a control modality as soon as early detection of NCDs is done. He also pressed that multisectoral action to prevent illness must be sought as it does not fit into the scope of health department only. In his video message to everyone, Mr. Milkha Singh presses upon the importance of physical activity and suggests everyone to take out time every day for health, keep themselves physically fit. Giving an example of supportive leadership, Prof. Jagat Ram has endorsed our initiative and we are in process of launching this initiative as a regular activity in the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh.
On March 7, 2021, the eminent public health organizations of India including Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) formally partnered with WNF to take up the Global Health and Wellness Initiative to a sustainable level. Prof. Sanjay Zodpey, President, and Prof. AM Kadri while endorsing the initiative on behalf of IAPSM highlighted that it is very important and critical for all of us to bring our energy and talent together in advancing the larger agenda of dealing with NCDs in the 21st century. Prof. Sanjay Rai, President, IPHA, said that during the modern time's busy lifestyle, one has to face challenges of consuming unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and stressful conditions. All these constitute risk factors of NCDs. He expressed that IPHA will be happy to be part of this initiative to curb NCD menace. International partners such as WHO and Viatris have also shown lot of interest and appreciated the initiative.
The campaign in India will focus on complementing and supplementing Health and Wellness Centers Program under Ayushman Bharat (AB-HWCs), strengthen comprehensive primary health care, and will help in integration of various initiatives by Government of India [Table 1]. There is a need for building a strong wellness component under AB-HWCs as it mainly comprises care package of 12 services. The campaign will be implemented through different stakeholders, including national health mission, all the medical colleges through their Departments of Community Medicine, and Civil society organization. WNF is already having partnership with some of these organizations to work together. Volunteer enrollment has been initiated on the website of WNF (www.worldncdfederation.org). | Table 1: Integration of various initiatives in India through global health and wellness initiative
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A mentoring group has been constituted which will act as think tank for this initiative which includes eminent public health professionals including Prof. CS Pandav, Prof. Yogesh Chawla, former Director of PGI, Dr. Sudhir Gupta, MoHFW, and experts from all over the world. While endorsing the well though campaign, Prof. CS Pandav called this endeavor “a fascinating initiative.” He said that giving time to public health endeavors by legends like Mr. Milkha Singh is highly appreciable to motivate youngsters and elderly equally. We will seek active participation of the Government of India to rope in the campaign for effective implementation of National multisectoral action plan and achieving convergence and integration of many national initiatives [Table 1]. India will be a case study and will show the way to rest of the world. It is important to understand the gist of initiative which will make it a fun to promote health but has a great depth and seriousness for preventing NCDs [Table 1].
The campaign is in its stage of operational plan development where brainstorming is in process to outline the concrete goals, strategies, and implementation framework. This initiative will be a holistic package dealing with strengthening health promotion, addressing five major risk factors of NCDs including unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, stress, consumption of alcohol, and tobacco and may help in realizing sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Till now, there are many government programs which have been focusing the health of population dealing directly or indirectly with NCDs. The limitation or challenges to these programs largely remain the lack of focus on health promotion and multisectoral collaboration.[1],[2] We earlier did a situational analysis in two districts, namely Hoshiarpur in Punjab and Ambala in Haryana which highlight that focus on prevention is poor in national health programs.[1] The global initiative in India will draw experiences from models of health promotion in various environments and settings, i.e., health-promoting districts known as Hoshiarpur Ambala model,[3] school settings,[4],[5],[6] and workplaces[7] which has been piloted and found to be feasible in various implementation studies in India.
Global Health and Wellness Initiative strongly emphasizes that it is high time to shift the focus on the component of health promotion with strategic focus on multisectoral collaboration to reduce the burden of NCDs as we cannot treat this epidemic. At the same time, we need access to services with the provision of diagnostic and essential medicines. This Global Health and Wellness Initiative will be a big step toward achieving SDGs by 2030.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Thakur JS, Jaswal N, Grover A. Is focus on prevention missing in National Health Programs? A situation analysis of IEC/BCC/health promotion activities in a district setting of Punjab and Haryana. Indian J Community Med 2017;42:30-6.  [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 2. | Thakur JS, Raina N, Karna P, Singh P, Jeet G, Jaswal N. Overview of national strategies on noncommunicable disease and adolescent health in South-East Asia Region countries. Int J Non Commun Dis 2016;1:76-86. |
| 3. | Thakur J, Jaswal N, Grover A, Kaur R, Jeet G, Bharti B, et al. Effectiveness of district health promotion model (Hoshiarpur Ambala model): An implementation experience from two districts from Northern part of India. Int J Noncommunicable Dis 2016;1:122. |
| 4. | Prabhushankar T, Thakur JS, Jaswal N, Bharti B, Bhansali A. Effect of 12-week lifestyle intervention on behavioral, anthropometry and biochemical profile of school children in Chandigarh, India. J Community Med Health Educ 2015;5:367. |
| 5. | Thakur JS, Bharti B, Tripathy JP, Dhawan V, Bhansali A. Impact of 20 week lifestyle intervention package on anthropometric biochemical and behavioral characteristics of schoolchildren in North India. J Trop Pediatr 2016;62:368-76. |
| 6. | Thakur JS, Sharma D, Jaswal N, Bharti B, Grover A, Thind P. Developing and implementing an accreditation system for health promoting schools in Northern India: A cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health 2014;14:1314. |
| 7. | Thakur J, Bains P, Kar S, Wadhwa S, Moirangthem P, Kumar R, et al. Integrated healthy workplace model: An experience from North Indian industry. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2012;16:108-13. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
[Table 1]
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