Union Minister Jitendra calls for National Priority on Diabetes Prevention
New Delhi, Aug 16 (TNT): Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh has called for making preventive healthcare and diabetes prevention a national priority, stressing the need for a community-led, technology-enabled and data-driven approach to address the growing burden of diabetes in rural India.
Addressing the inauguration of the RSSDI Diabetes Rural Outreach Digital Portal and launch of VISHWAS, the Diabetes Awareness Video Library, here on Sunday, Jitendra said protecting the health and productive potential of India’s young population was crucial to achieving the vision of India@2047.
The programme was organised by the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) and attended by experts and stakeholders from the healthcare sector, including National RSSDI President Dr Anuj Maheshwari, Secretary General Dr Rakesh Parikh, IDF South-East Asia Chair Dr Banshi Saboo and NABH Chairman Rizwan Koita.
The Union Minister said advances in healthcare, scientific research and digital innovation should reach every citizen, particularly those living in rural and underserved areas.
He said rural India was no longer untouched by the diabetes epidemic and underlined the importance of early detection, timely intervention, lifestyle modification and regular follow-up.
He said the RSSDI Rural Outreach Programme demonstrated how professional medical societies could complement national healthcare efforts by adopting villages and providing a structured model for awareness, screening, treatment and long-term follow-up.
The programme has already covered around 30 villages across several States, with further expansion planned, he said.
Jitendra said the newly launched digital portal would facilitate systematic documentation of patients, continuity of care, monitoring of outcomes and generation of real-world data from rural communities. Such data, he said, could help in developing evidence-based public health strategies relevant to the Indian population.
The Union Minister called for greater coordination among government agencies, academic institutions, technology partners, private organisations and local healthcare workers to develop sustainable models for prevention and management of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
“The age of silos is over,” Singh said, highlighting the growing convergence of engineering, technology and medical sciences in healthcare delivery, digital health and community-based interventions.
He also stressed the need for digital health solutions to recognise India’s linguistic diversity, including colloquial languages spoken at the grassroots level, to make technology-enabled healthcare more accessible to communities.
He said diabetes had emerged as a major public health challenge, with changing lifestyles and food habits contributing to its spread across rural and urban areas.
He said prevention of diabetes and its complications could not remain the responsibility of doctors alone and required participation from individuals, communities, healthcare professionals and institutions.
He said India’s large young population placed a special responsibility on the country to protect its demographic dividend from preventable diseases and complications and enable young people to contribute fully to the country’s development by 2047.
The RSSDI Rural Outreach Programme focuses on diabetes awareness, early diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and prevention through village adoption by RSSDI members.
The digital portal provides a standardised platform for beneficiary registration, treatment documentation, longitudinal follow-up, programme monitoring and generation of anonymised real-world data for public health planning and research.
Jitendra expressed hope that RSSDI would work with government agencies, academic institutions, technology partners and local healthcare workers to develop the Rural Outreach Programme into a sustainable and scalable model for diabetes prevention and management.
TNT KM
