After nearly 11 years, Dr Dileep Mavalankar marked his last day as the Director of Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPH-G) after his superannuation Wednesday. A mentor to several public health professionals and the brain behind several public health care policies in Gujarat, Dr Mavalankar will, however, continue his association with the institute as an honorary professor and will continue mentoring start-ups at Technology Business Incubator for Public Health at IIPH-G. The first full-time director in 2012 to head IIPH-G, he took the institute from its rented campus in Ahmedabad to its own campus in Gandhinagar in 2016. He had joined IIPHG in 2010 as the dean of academic affairs. An MBBS alumnus of NHL Municipal Medical College in Ahmedabad, Dr Mavalankar went on to complete his MD in preventive and social medicine in Ahmedabad and then masters in public health and doctor of public health (DrPH) from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. With maternal and child health being a specialised focus throughout his career, he pioneered for emergency obstetric care and was integral in policy change in this regard, including in Gujarat. At a farewell ceremony for Dr Mavalankar, former IAS officer Amarjit Singh, who was the state health commissioner, reminisced about his 25-year-long association with the public health expert. He recalled how, during the chikungunya surge that had hit the state in 2016, Dr Mavalankar insisted on checking a simple metric — crematorium data, despite apparent assurances from the state machinery that the situation was improving, and it was being effectively managed. “One day, he came to our office and said why don’t we look at the data from the crematoriums. When we looked at the data, it was surely higher. It made us sit straight, take note,” said Singh. Singh also reminisced of his tenure as health commissioner in 2001 when as an enthusiastic officer he was planning to target the issue of family planning. However, Dr Mavalankar heard him quietly and later presented photos from family planning camps where women were being pumped with air in their abdomen through a cycle tyre air pumping machine so as to conduct the surgeries. “He (Dr Mavalanakar) said, take care of the women, population control will take care of itself," said Singh. He also added that Dr Mavalankar was instrumental towards framing the Chiranjeevi scheme in Gujarat. The scheme, through public private partnership, offers emergency obstetric care and institutional deliveries for poor and rural populations. The scheme was key in tackling maternal mortality rates, Singh said. Dr Mavalankar has also made significant contributions in the area of environment public health and public health management, and also developed the Heat Action Plan (HAP) — a first for Southeast Asia. HAP was piloted in Ahmedabad after mapping excess mortalities due to heat. He has been advocating that along with rising temperatures, the corresponding all-cause mortality, all-cause hospitalisation and other secondary data should also be recorded to draw a correlation on the impact of events such as heat waves. Dr Mavalankar was also a member secretary of the high-level Covid-19 taskforce of the Gujarat government and was among the first to advocate for adequate ventilation and better data recording and transparency. Dr Mavalankar also authored several studies examining aspects, including the secondary attack rate of Covid in households. Prior to IIPH-G, Dr Mavalankar taught public systems at IIM-Ahmedabad for nearly 20 years and set up the Centre for Management Health Services (CMHS), which received the IIMA Board’s approval in 2004. Known for mentoring several public health professionals, Dr Kranti Vora, who has collaborated with Dr Mavalankar on several research projects, said Dr Mavalankar has been fearless in his approach and has not shied away from standing up for causes when required. In 2011, Dr Mavalankar was heading a committee set up following the Gujarat High Court directions in a public interest litigation highlighting public health, hygiene and sanitation issues at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital that had led to a rise in diseases such as dengue, malaria, jaundice, hepatitis-B, etc. Based on the committee reports, the HC had issued directions and had ultimately disposed of the PIL in 2014 following improvement in the conditions. He was also appointed by the Prime Minister to the Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Central government in 2005 and was also a member of the steering group on Health for the 12th five-year plan constituted by the Planning Commission of India and a similar group constituted by the Gujarat government. Dr Mavalankar’s grandfather Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar was the first speaker of independent India. His father, VG Mavalankar, a surgeon, had set up the Ahmedabad chapter of Red Cross Society., and his uncle Purushottam Mavalankar, was elected twice to Lok Sabha as an independent MP.
