PHFI

Senior Program Officer (AYUSH)

A blend of multicultural and interdisciplinary education and work has been the basis of Dr.Aditi Bana’s academic and work experience. She graduated in Ayurveda (Indian system of medicine) from Pune and post-graduated in preventive Ayurveda from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore. Her postgraduate research studied the preventive role of yoga, lifestyle modification and diet on primary dysmenorrhoea. As a Norad (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) scholar at the course on International Community Health at Oslo University she researched on maternal health in India. Later she interned as a Research Associate in the Maternal and Child Health section of the WHO-UNDP Knowledge Management Programme in India. On completing her post-graduation she taught preventive Ayurveda at Dabur Dhanwantry College in Chandigarh and worked as the Assistant Medical Superintendent at the college Hospital. After teaching graduate students for almost two years Dr. Aditi’s went on to pursue a Masters in Public Health at the University of Glasgow. Here her research explored the points of convergence between Ayurvedic perspectives of healthy living with contemporary Health Promotion. This research was well received by the Department of Public Health at the University of Glasgow. Upon completion of her Masters she joined the Norwegian Embassy in Delhi as a Health Consultant in the Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) for mother and child health. Within the diplomatic environment of the Embassy her domain of work included strengthening Indo-Norwegian research collaboration for maternal and newborn care in India. Thereafter she joined a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded project in rural Uttar Pradesh researching on interdisciplinary skin care practices of newborns. As the Ayurveda Scientist in the team she led and managed the Ayurveda component of this research.  Presently, as the Senior Program Officer (AYUSH) at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) Dr.Bana’s responsibilities focus on strengthening the AYUSH portfolio of PHFI.

Additionally, Dr. Aditi has received her training in therapeutic yoga at S-VYASA Yoga University, Bangalore and is a certified yoga teacher from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Academy, Trivandrum.

Areas of Interest:

Collaborative approach of Traditional systems of Medicine and Public Health in Health Promotion (Nutrition, Geriatric Care, Mental Health, Maternal and Child Health); Salutogenesis; Gender and Health; Social determinants of health