Certificate Programme on Public Health Fundamentals: Perspectives and Practice

Introduction

The fact that health matters to all of us is well accepted. Yet, a society where all sections of the population can achieve good standards of health, is far from reality. Although India has made significant public health gains through eradicating health concerns such as Polio and reducing infant mortality, we are grappling with several enduring and emerging challenges. These include a high burden of tuberculosis-related deaths, significant out-of-pocket expenditure in accessing healthcare, an explosion in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases including mental health challenges, and environmental health risks. They are of concern to the entire population but pose disproportionate threats to persons from marginalised communities. 

Making sense of where we are, understanding the ways of improving health at a population level, and learning from practices that have worked, requires a foundational understanding of the domain of public health. This entails learning public health perspectives and practice in a cohesive rather than a fragmented manner through specific topics. 

We address this need through this certificate programme for professionals who wish to engage with the public health domain or are already working in specific health and related themes, without necessarily being exposed to formal public health training. 

Key features

• Developing public health perspectives embedded in the values of equity, rights and social justice
• Critically analysing contemporary public health challenges in India
• Examining approaches and strategies of diverse public health interventions
• Offering a blended mode — 6 days in-person, followed by 9 Saturday online sessions- creating an opportunity for deeper engagement of the participants with University.

Who will benefit from the programme?

Offered in a blended mode, it will benefit the following cohort of participants:

• those  interested in engaging/​ initiating public health action
• those already working in health and related domains 
• medical and allied health professionals
• those working in health grant-making institutions/​ organisations

Eligibility

• Participants to have at least two years of work experience.
• Participants to have working knowledge of English.