Home ministry blocks foreign funds for NGO that supported health ministry's anti-tobacco drive -Menaka Rao

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The Public Health Foundation of India had been working on government programmes since 2010.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has barred the Public Health Foundation of India from receiving foreign funding by revoking its registration under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act. The ministry cited the organisation’s lobbying against tobacco use as one of the reasons for the move. However, as the foundation’s officials have pointed out, it has been working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on anti-tobacco programmes since 2010.

The Public Health Foundation of India is a public-private initiative established to provide technical support to the health ministry on a range of issues concerning public health, including tobacco control. The foundation has worked on several research projects and organised training workshops for health workers on how to counter tobacco consumption. It took on many of these initiatives at the ministry’s request.

In July 2015, experts from the foundation were asked to present evidence before a Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation that was reviewing pictorial health warnings on tobacco packets.

Health activists working on tobacco control have said that the home ministry’s position is appalling. “We have to interact with the government on any issue related to social development, not just tobacco control,” said Sanjay Seth from Voice of Tobacco Victims, a campaign that is putting tobacco victims at the forefront of the tobacco control movement in India. “How can they officially raise [anti-tobacco lobbying] as an issue?”

Other reasons cited by the home ministry’s for cancelling the foundation’s licence include alleged violations in the use of funds for HIV/AIDS projects, remittances to foreign countries from its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act account and failure to declare all its bank accounts to the government.

In October, the government cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licence of the Institute of Public Health in Bengaluru and Voluntary Health Association of Assam, both which have done considerable work on tobacco control. However, the reasons for their licences being cancelled were not specifically stated.

Tobacco is one of the leading causes of cancer and non-communicable diseases around the world. Every year 9.8 lakh people in India die of a tobacco-caused disease. Research done by the Public Health Foundation of India under the directives of the government estimates that the health costs attributable to tobacco use in the year 2011 for people between the ages of 35 and 69 amounted to Rs 1,04,500 crores.

“Tobacco control activity is not a criminal activity,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, cancer surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital. “We are furthering the cause of government of India and augmenting the National Tobacco Control Programme.”

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