PHFI

The goal of the Ramalingaswami Centre for Social Determinants of Health at the Public Health Foundation of India is to contribute substantially to improving the health of India’s population, especially the disadvantaged groups.  The Centre intends to achieve this goal through high quality research, training and policy development related to social determinants of health.

The specific objectives are:

1. Develop a comprehensive and dynamic evidence base on social determinants of health in India.
2. Utilise this evidence base to incorporate locally relevant teaching on social determinants of health with public health training in India.
3. Utilise this evidence to facilitate policy development aimed at reducing health inequities due to social determinants of health in India.
4. Facilitate the development of a national health equity surveillance system and knowledge hub for social determinants of health through strategic partnerships with a range of stakeholders on the above research, training and policy activities.

While all of these objectives are inter-related the crucial link between them is the generation of a locally relevant evidence base because a weak evidence base would inevitably result in sub-optimal outcomes in the other objectives.  Given the overwhelming importance of generating proper knowledge to inform training and policy development, and for the establishment of a national health equity surveillance system and knowledge hub, high quality and locally relevant research on social determinants of health will be the driving force at the Ramalingaswami Centre for Social Determinants of Health.

The Centre has been established with funding from the V. Ramalingaswami Foundation.  The work at this Centre builds upon the research work, “Synthesise evidence on the social determinants of health to inform research and policy in India,” started at the Public Health Foundation of India and supported by a grant from the UK-based BUPA Foundation.