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Presidential nod for making ICMR separate department

— Photo: K. Pichumani

HONOUR: Union Health Minister Anbumani presenting a memento to Kalpana Balakrishnan, director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health, Sri Ramachandra University, in Chennai on Wednesday.

Chennai: President Pratibha Patil has given her assent to make the Indian Council for Medical Research a separate department under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said here on Wednesday.

This would mean more autonomy, opportunity to be part of international networks and also boost funding prospects for the country’s premier health research organisation, he said.

Dr. Anbumani was speaking at the founder’s day celebrations at Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) after inaugurating a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Occupational Health and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board - accredited biodosimetry laboratory.

Presenting an exhaustive list of the Ministry’s recent initiatives, he stressed that the focus would be on combating non-communicable diseases and improving quality and access to health in rural areas. Stroke, cardiovascular diseases, mental health problems, diabetes and cancer are the ‘Big 5’ that strike the most productive section of the population – the youth.

He urged SRU to work towards becoming a centre in Chennai to undertake pharmacological vigilance to control the distribution and use of spurious drugs.

Earlier, he distributed prizes to students and staff of the varsity, along with SRU Chancellor V.R.Venkatachalam.

S.J. Habayeb, WHO Representative to India, said occupational health was a massive priority area for India, covering both the organised and unorganised sectors.

Gerry Eijkemans, Head, Occupational Health Group, Occupational Health Programme, WHO, said over 500 million of the three billion workers globally were from India.

The main concern was to focus on small and medium industries, unorganised workers and women workers and to get each country to evolve its own cohesive national plan to promote occupational health.

H.N. Saiyed of the WHO South East Asian Region Office, said 2.2 million lives were lost annually because of work-related accidents and the largest number was from South East Asia. In India, only one per cent of fatal accidents and 0.1 per cent of non-fatal accidents were being reported to the ILO, and under-reporting would mean that lesser priority was being accorded to the issue.

Kalpana Balakrishnan, director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health, SRU, said over the next four years, the centre would focus on developing occupational health tool boxes, imparting training on the occupational health package of the WHO to primary health care workers, starting MPH and MD courses in occupational health and setting up distance-based learning programmes for in-service professionals.

N.K. Ganguly, Director General, ICMR; S. Rangaswami, Vice-Chancellor; S.S.K. Marthandam, chairman and director, orthopaedics; K.V. Somasundaram, dean of faculties; and Solomon F.D. Paul, Head, Department of Human Genetics, SRU, spoke.

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