About IIPH Shillong
IIPH Shillong was established by the PHFI in collaboration with the Government of Meghalaya as a regional public health institute. IIPH Shillong is intended to redress the limited institutional and systems capacity in public health in the North East Region of India. In August 2020, the legal status of the institute changed and it became an independent entity under the IIPH Shillong Society.
On 19 August 2020, the Indian Institute of Public Health Shillong Society was registered under the Meghalaya Societies Registration Act XII of 1983. The objects of the Society are: to promote health and wellbeing in all communities including tribal peoples and the weaker sections of society, establish, develop, and maintain teaching and research Institute/s including a University. So as to promote research, education, capacity building and cost-effective health delivery systems, in the northeast region. The affairs of the society are overseen by the Governing Body comprising the Principal Secretary, the Health and Family Welfare Government of Meghalaya, the President of PHFI, the Director of IIPH Shillong, public health specialists from Meghalaya and other experts from North-East India.
Public Health challenges in the NER and the need for Public Health
India and in particular its North East Region (NER) continues to be confronted by the unfinished agenda of infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and unsafe pregnancies while faced with the emerging challenge of escalating epidemics of non-communicable diseases. This composite threat to the nation’s health and development needs a concerted public health response that can ensure efficient delivery of cost-effective interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and affordable diagnostic and therapeutic health care.
The NER, often described as ‘poorly developed’ in policy circles, consists of 8 states together bordered by Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. About 98% of the NER is bounded by international borders. It is well recognized that although the term northeast is often understood to imply a homogenous entity of tribal lands, in reality, this is a hugely heterogeneous and diverse region of multiple cultures, worldviews, landscapes, and mixed values systems in a modernizing world that is constantly changing. Covid-19 is not the only public health crisis that we are dealing with, nor will it be in the future. Almost every year there are communicable disease outbreaks of swine flu, Japanese encephalitis, scrub typhus, typhoid, and brucellosis in the NER. Just as importantly, there is a persistent need for disease prevention in multiple domains involving nutrition, environmental exposures, maternal and child health, injury/violence prevention, mental health, and more.
Public health challenges in the northeast region are myriad and often require varied approaches taking into account differences in ethnicities, culture, food, and lifestyle as compared to the other parts of India.
The IIPH Shillong is located at Lawmali, Pasture Hill, Shillong on premises provided by the GoM. Additionally, IIPH Shillong has acquired additional space at Brookdene, Holy Cross, Dhanketi, Shillong, to accommodate the growing demands of the organization.
IIPH Shillong initiated a full-time two-year Master in Public Health (MPH) program in 2019, in partnership with the Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, aligning with the National Health Policy 2017. The inaugural batch of 15 students was launched in 2019, with the program being inaugurated by the Hon’ Chief Minister and the Hon’ Health Minister in 2019. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the program continued, accommodating 25 students from the Northeast and other regions primarily through online classes.
In 2021, recognizing ongoing public health challenges, IIPH Shillong introduced a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health (BSc PH) in collaboration with Martin Luther Christian University. The BSc PH course will attempt to prepare a competent cadre of professionals who have a basic understanding of the various aspects of public health and are able to apply this knowledge towards meeting public health challenges in the Indian context.