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National level Workshop on “National
Iodine Disorder Control Program”
A
national policy level workshop on “National Iodine Deficiency Disorders
Control Programme”
(NIDDCP) was organized on 24th-25th October, 2007 at Vigyan
Bhawan, New
Delhi as a part of the celebrations of the Global
Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day. It was hosted by the Nutrition
and IDD Cell, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, Government of India in collaboration with the WHO-India
Country Office.
The
participants included Dr. R.K Srivastava, Director
General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; policy
makers, senior officials from the central and state Departments of Health and
Family Welfare; Dr S.J Habayeb, WHO Representative to India; academia;
representatives from training and research institutes such as National
Institute of Communicable Diseases, National Institute of Health and Family
Welfare, National Institute of Nutrition; salt industry and the Salt
Commissioner’s Office; UN agencies; and other national/ international
organizations such as the International Council for Control of Iodine
Deficiency Disorders.
The
objectives of the workshop were three fold, namely to:
 review
the current status of the programme
identify
the gaps and challenges in the implementation of the programme
recommend actions for more effective implementation of the
programme.
The workshop concluded
with the following key recommendations:
The
movement of adequately iodized salt through railways to be prioritized in
terms of category/ wagon quota accorded and rail freight levied.
The
issue of quality control of iodized salt is to be addressed through strict
enforcement of the available legislation. The Salt Commissioner’s Office to
play a more pro-active role in this regard.
The
monitoring mechanisms of the program are to be strengthened through
introduction of an online linkage system between the Central and State IDD
cells facilitating timely reporting, feedback and sharing of information.
The
capacities of medical and para-medical personnel
under NIDDCP to be enhanced through regular refresher training.
An
effective IEC strategy to be developed by identifying a set of prototype materials
and disseminating them to the states for adaptation as per the local
language.
The
intersectoral coordination of all functionaries at
the community level to be stressed upon for creating demand for iodized salt
through information, education and communication. In this regard, the
possibility of distributing ‘qualitative spot testing kits for salts’ to the
ground level functionaries needs to be explored.
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