HRIDAY is a voluntary organization of health professionals, social scientists and lawyers engaged in activities aimed towards prevention of NCDs through health promotion in multiple settings including schools, workplaces and communities. HRIDAY works in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to promote health awareness and informed health activism among youth in India. The program has been listed as a ‘Best Practice Model’ and recommended for global replication by WHO.

HRIDAY served as the Secretariat of the Pre Conference Youth Workshop of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health (14th WCTOH). The Global Youth Meet on Tobacco Control(GYM 2009), with active participation from peer leaders and chaperones from GYM 2006, provided a platform to approximately 140 international and national participants from 27 countries across the world and 7 states of India to discuss and debate issues related to tobacco control.

HRIDAY is actively involved in conducting social science, policy and legal research, particularly around the implementation of the tobacco control law in India. Specific studies include assessing the impact of portrayal of tobacco use in Bollywood movies on tobacco use among adolescents, effectiveness of pictorial health warnings on tobacco packages, illicit trade of tobacco across international borders, etc. HRIDAY is also engaged in operations research for devising frameworks to integrate tobacco control in broader health programs.

HRIDAY works closely with the Government of India (GOI) and several national and international non-government organizations (NGOs) to build capacity of stakeholders in the area of tobacco control including implementation of the tobacco control law through capacity building workshops for law enforcement officials and fellow NGOs and community level action to reduce the burden of tobacco.

HRIDAY serves as the Secretariat of the Advocacy Forum of Tobacco Control (AFTC), a coalition of 65 NGOs in India. Through HRIDAY’s capacity development endeavors, nearly 500 NGOs and their personnel, over 900 law enforcers have been sensitized, particularly in tobacco control issues. In addition HRIDAY envisages reaching out to masses through the policy maker and media advocacy components.

HRIDAY has partnered with Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to carry out tobacco control activities  aimed to reduce the health burden of tobacco through evidence based economic and policy research, advocacy, community based cessation strategies, media interventions and multi-level tobacco control initiatives in India.

To know more about HRIDAY, please click on the following link :http://www.hriday-shan.org