People’s forum for containing NCDs

Meanwhile, Health Department is, reportedly, finalising age-related and disease-specific diet plan.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A public health campaign is on the cards to contain the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the state. Named ‘Janakeeya Munnettam’, the campaign targeting people of all age groups, will raise awareness on the need to switch to a healthy diet plan and take up physical activity. To be made as a component of the Aardram Mission, the campaign consists of an action-plan and age-related and disease-specific diet plan.

“Janakeeya Munnettam will become a turning point in the fight against NCDs. It will engage people from all walks of life to take up some kind of physical activity. Kudumbashree, Asha and health workers and students will be employed to create awareness,” said Dr Bipin K Gopal, state nodal officer, NCD.

According to him as a prelude to ‘Janakeeya Munnettam’, a workplace intervention programme targeting white-collar workers will be launched on November 1st. “The sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet are what put the population in the grip of NCDs. An action-plan to contain this will have to be chalked out. But we are yet to decide whether we want a state-specific plan or a district-specific one,” added Bipin.

Meanwhile, Health Department is, reportedly, finalising age-related and disease-specific diet plan. “The problem is that there are so many diet plans out there. But we can’t conclusively state which plan is better. We have some genetic differences and by following plans like ‘zero-carb diet’ problems might crop-up in the long run. Thus the diet plan that the state is going to devise will endorse no existing diet plan and will be simple and general,” said an officer of the Health Department. Dr P S Indu, head of Community Medicine Department, Government Medical College Thiruvananthapuram, said that as cases of morbidity due to NCDs were increasing there was a need to bring change in people’s consumption pattern. For the that, intense grass-root level campaign should be taken up. Dr Indu is the principal investigator of an ICMR study on consumption pattern.