The first national level 2-day Workshop of the National Steering Group for Oral Health on ‘Action plan for Strengthening Oral Healthcare in India’ under the aegis of National Oral Health Programme, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was held at the Oral Health Sciences Centre (OHSC), PGIMER, Chandigarh.
This National Steering Group for Oral Health was constituted by the Central Health Ministry for effective implementation of National Oral Health Programme (NOHP) and facilitating capacity building, advocacy and policy issues for oral health.
In this workshop, priority areas for strengthening oral healthcare in India were identified and scope for National/ Regional collaborative work under NOHP was explored. Prof. Vivek Lal, Director, PGIMER, the Chief Guest of the function, highlighted the importance of optimum oral health being the key for maintaining general systemic health and a good quality of life. Addl Deputy Director General, MoHFW, GoI, Dr L Swasticharan stressed upon the need to create more regional and national resource centres under the NOHP for improved oral healthcare in India. Notably OHSC, PGIMER is a National Resource Centre for Oral Healthcare of Children and Elderly and is always at the forefront for conducting such workshops on a regular basis. Prof K Gauba, Dean Research, PGIMER and Head- OHSC, PGIMER reiterated the mission of OHSC, PGIMER in providing strategic and technical guidance to the Ministry of Health and Welfare in strengthening oral healthcare in India. Representative from the World Health Organization, Country Office, assured the commitment of WHO towards reducing oral health burden in the country and apprised the member participants that oral health has now been classified as a priority area by the World Health Assembly of the WHO. Participants from MoHFW, AIIMS New Delhi, WHO-India, DCI and other prestigious institutes participated in fruitful scientific deliberations with enthusiasm and unified zeal in identification of the key oral health issues.
Scope for national/ regional collaborative work under NOHP was discussed at length and proposals on setting up on new national/ regional resource centres were presented by a few members of the National Steering Group for oral health.
