Prioritizing meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs at national and sub-national levels

Healthy India Alliance (HIA) and its member organizations accord high priority to sustaining engagements with communities and people living with NCDs.

In India, health is a state subject. State level prevalence of NCDs also plays a major role in priority-setting done through State level Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs). Therefore, sub-national consultations with communities have been a regular feature for HIA. This helps identify advocacy priorities to be pursued at the national level along with state specific ones.

In 2021, HIA involved stakeholders at sub-national levels, in two Indian states - Maharashtra and Punjab - to undertake a strategic priority mapping of current efforts towards meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs. This led to identification of key priorities for a people-centered NCD agenda that is locally relevant. This translated into the formulation of Multistakeholder Working Groups in the two states, comprising of representatives from the state governments and non-health departments, civil society organizations, people living with NCDs and health care providers. In 2022, the Working Groups developed and launched state level guidelines for meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs. The guidelines, in both states, were officially submitted to the State Ministers of Health.

Persistent calls for inclusion of people living with NCDs by HIA and its network of people living with NCDs received much-needed recognition in 2023. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare updated their existing NCD programme to become the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2023- 2030 (NP-NCD), better reflecting the NCD burden in India. The NP- NCD operational guidelines acknowledge meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs and the India Advocacy Agenda of People Living with NCDs. They promote working with networks of people with lived experience of NCDs for an inclusive NCD response.

"The operational guidelines are very comprehensive and broaden the definition of NCDs from the past. The guidelines, however, will need localization based on sub-national disease prevalence, priorities, and budget allocation. The state level guidelines [developed by HIA] will come in handy in this process and we are in touch with the state level Nodal officers to take this discussion forward.”

Dr Rakesh Gupta, member of the Multistakeholder Working Group (Punjab) and HIA member