About SANCHAR
SANCHAR, or Science and News: Communicating Health And Research, is aimed at building capacity and facilitating the adoption of practices to use or draw on evidence in public health communication and practice.
Our goal is to enable journalists and public health practitioners, among other actors, draw on the latest science and data in what they do in shaping public knowledge, attitudes and policy on health.
To facilitate this, SANCHAR will aid media professionals in leveraging scientific evidence for social change and shaping policy agenda. The portal offers resources to journalists who report on health. It includes a repository to access, interpret, and apply health data starting with the National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS-4), an interactive tool to draw inferences on various reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) and nutrition indicators. It also includes data visualizations, knowledge briefs, and list of experts on health topics.
SANCHAR web portal, over time, will offer links to external websites for reports, policy briefs, and other useful resources. At the first phase, SANCHAR is focused on helping journalists tell data-informed or evidence-informed stories.
SANCHAR was developed after a needs-assessment of the current strengths and limitations of the health information environment in India, drawing upon interviews conducted with health journalists in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow.
Key Features
Capacity building through workshops that help familiarize and engage with the current evidence in public health, and learn how to use evidence in reporting, public health practice and decision making.
Technical assistance and feedback provided to trainees to tackle real-life situations and create sustainable change in practice settings.
Collaborative networks nurtured through workshops, meetings and summits promote evidence-based social change.
About the Data Portal
The data portal is a repository to access, understand, interpret and apply available health data as evidence. It currently draws upon data from National Family Health Survey- 4 (NFHS-4) and provides an interactive tool to draw inferences from the data on various Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition indicators.
People
Viswanath Lab based in Harvard University/ Dana Farber Cancer Institute has nearly two decades of experience in promoting research translation, dissemination and implementation among non-governmental organizations, journalists and decision makers.
