With more than 100 million people in India likely to develop diabetes by 2030, a white paper released at the recent national summit on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) described ambiguous policies by the government as a hurdle to containing diseases such as diabetes. The paper on management and care of diabetes in India states that “clarity on roles and responsibilities of existing manpower, with clear delegation of funds, functions and functionaries” is the need of the hour.
Speaking at the National NCD summit on June 7, Union health secretary Keshav Desiraju also expressed the need for a dedicated work force of intermediate level public healthcare workers apart from accredited social health activists (ASHAs) to focus on tackling NCDs. He suggested that there should be specific models of public private partnerships evolved with clear identification of roles and responsibilities.
Capacity building is key
The recommendations presented in the white paper are aimed at strengthening national policies and programmes for the management of diabetes. They were prepared with inputs received from five state roundtable forums with multi- stakeholder groups organized at state capitals of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
