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Bharathion 2023
February 01, 2024

Exploring the Multidimensional Prospects of Millets : The Panacea to Kerala’s Growing Public Health Menace

For more details download the brochure  

A state’s public health vision and mission is realised when state and the people together as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy. Kerala tops in life style diseases index putting its public health spectrum in jeopardy. Kerala’s health and wellness score is 34.4 signicantly below the national average of 53.99. Alarmingly, around 21 per cent of Kerala’s population were found to be prone to serious non-communicable diseases (Health Department Survey 2022). Irrespective of the region and economic strata, urbanisation and modernisation has inuenced the lifestyle of the population, making the state fertile for non-communicable diseases to ourish. Kerala’s population dynamics and the current health and life style indices put the state into heavy economic burden as it needs to cater to the health and rehabilitation needs of large segment of population including elderly which comes nearly one-fth of the total population. Though government has taken some measures to actively screening the population segments for life style diseases and campaigns have been promoted to increase awareness on healthy diet and exercises, types of sustainable livelihood opportunities give way to sedentary life style and luxurious engagements. Hence redressal of this public health menace is only possible through changing food patterns and habits that suits to the current life style. Millets are crops that are climate resilient and as having high nutritional value, low in carbohydrates which is suitable for Kerala’s current life style. With this background, Bharata Mata School of Social Work is initiating a national conference on Exploring the multidimensional prospects of Millets – the panacea to Kerala’s growing public health menace – to deliberate and take action on promoting millets to be included in the diet and food habits so
that the incidences of Kerala’s life style diseases can be lessened and Kerala’s public health concerns can be mitigated. 

The conference will deliberate on the following sub themes namely, situational analysis of life style diseases in Kerala, its intersections with climatic challenges, food security, millets as a new health paradigm, successful and sustainable millet projects in Kerala and role of social work education and practice in building healthy, sustainable communities. The national conference aims to discuss and bring to light the intersections and multiple dimensions where Millets can be considered to be included in the main diet and food pattern so that Kerala’s current public health concern can be constructively addressed.