Public Health Foundation of India

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a public private initiative that has collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments, multi & bi-lateral agencies and civil society groups. PHFI is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health.

Structured as an independent foundation, PHFI adopts a broad, integrative approach to public health, tailoring its endeavours to Indian conditions and bearing relevance to countries facing similar challenges and concerns. The PHFI focuses on broad dimensions of public health that encompass promotive, preventive and therapeutic services, many of which are frequently lost sight of in policy planning as well as in popular understanding. The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, launched PHFI on March 28, 2006 at New Delhi. PHFI recognizes the fact that meeting the shortfall of health professionals is imperative to a sustained and holistic response to the public health concerns in the country which in turn requires health care to be addressed not only from the scientific perspective of what works, but also from the social perspective of, who needs it the most.

PHFI was born at a time of great confidence in India’s soaring economic growth but also of great concern about the appallingly poor health indicators that were utterly incongruous with the image of a rapidly developing country.Apart from high rates of infant, child and maternal mortality, as well as shockingly high levels of child undernutrition and adolescent anaemia, a multitude of infectious diseases extracted a high toll of avoidable deaths and disability. Those who survived these threats faced the mounting menace of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and mental illness. Personal health, family fortunes and national productivity- all fell prey to diseases that could have prevented or detected early for effective control. The response of a poorly configured and seriously under resourced health system, to these complex challenges was feeble and uncoordinated. Policies and programmes in other sectors, which profoundly impact on health, were not sensitive or aligned to public health goals. India’s embarrassingly low position, in the global listings of Human Development Index, was due to neglect of health and education at the population level, despite islands of excellence in tertiary medical care or higher professional education.