The Centre for Public Health and Equity (CPHE) is a functional unit of the Society for Community Health Awareness, Research and Action (SOCHARA). It works predominantly in the areas of public health education and policy advocacy. It promotes a new public health paradigm focused on health equity; social justice; underlying social determinants of health including gender; inclusive and responsive health systems; and health policy development.
CPHE was formally inaugurated in December 2008 during the Silver Jubilee year of Community Health Cell (CHC), the original functional unit of SOCHARA. It has evolved from the public health education and health policy research, action and advocacy work of CHC over several years at state, national and global levels.
CPHE’s work can be divided into four broad themes.
- Strengthening global and national policy commitment to Health for All with comprehensive primary health care as an approach
- Strengthening the social and community dimensions in public health education, with focus on capacity building
- Promoting a community paradigm in public health research, including engagement with civil society
- Supporting the global and national People’s Health Movement (PHM) and simultaneously catalyzing a public health alliance of professionals from multi-disciplinary backgrounds that can be supportive of the Health For All movement
CPHE also hopes, as a Jubilee commitment, to creatively adapt and evolve learning materials based on CHC’s experiences from 1984 to 2008. Going forward in this direction CPHE inaugurated a Public Health Resource Centre in Madhya Pradesh in 2009, to consolidate the experience on supporting various aspects of public health policy and community action in Madhya Pradesh.
CPHE is a part of the Policy Group to prepare a National Mental Health Policy and Plan, appointed by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.