Gurgaon, India: Representatives of more than 5,000 healthcare institutions and several thousand healthcare professionals around the country that form the Health and Environment Leadership Platform (HELP) released a joint statement today calling for concerted action to reduce air pollution in India.
The statement called on “all relevant stakeholders to take immediate and sustainable action to improve India’s air quality and ameliorate its impacts on health”. The statement also noted that “if India is to realize the value of its demographic dividend, it will need to tackle the growing menace of air pollution, a task in which the health sector stands ready to assist”.
The Health and Environment Leadership Platform was also formally launched today by the Public Health Foundation of India in partnership with Health Care Without Harm. The platform aims to bring together health sector leaders to voice their concern and show leadership on the impact of environmental risk factors for ill health.
Recognising that environmental degradation threatens to slow or reverse the progress the public health community has made against many diseases in a developing country like India, HELP will aim to:
- Advocate for the importance of inter-sectoral, collaborative policymaking to address the health impacts of environmental pollution
- Showcasing Leadership in health systems by reducing their environmental and energy burden
- Build Capacity of physicians on the health impacts of environmental pollution
The first meeting of the Health and Environment Leadership Platform (HELP) at PHFI in Delhi.
Read more about the launch of HELP from Health Care Without Harm.
