Abbott Diabetes Blue Fortnight (ADBF) 2011, India’s largest campaign on Diabetes Awareness, recenty launched an initiative called Women for Diabetes Care (WDC) in Mumbai. An initiative of Heal Foundation and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, WDC is at the heart of India’s largest campaign on diabetes awareness, ADBF 2011.

As the focal point of ADBF 2011, WDC aims to mobilise and encourage women to come together in this fight against diabetes. WDC is an association consisting of group of women who have come together to raise awareness amongst women at large by educating and empowering them with knowledge on diabetes.

Women are central in the prevention and management of diabetes in India – a country which is currently home to the largest number of diabetics in the world, reveals a survey conducted by Heal Foundation. The study conducted on 500 families across Mumbai, indicates that awareness drives need to focus much more on women than they presently are.

The study, conducted by Heal Foundation with support from Mumbai based ‘Saarthi Healthcare brings some disconcerting facts to light, some contradictions and at the individual level shows visible gaps in the effective management of diabetes. This becomes particularly worrisome when one considers the rising incidence of the heart and kidney related complications of the disease.

Recognising this need, India’s largest diabetes awareness campaign has this year approached women from various fraternities of life to enlighten on the pivotal role played by them in the prevention and management of diabetes. A long term awareness and educational programme for women is the need of the hour and it may have a visible impact on the burgeoning incidence of the disease.

According to  Dr Hemraj Chandalia director of Denmarc, every year new strategies are formulated to combat this modern scourge but there still exists a huge gap between knowledge and implementation.

Explaining further Sonal Modi, nutritionist, at Denmarc said, “There may be two reasons contributing to this laid-back attitude of people towards effective management of diabetes. Either people do not know the in and out of diabetes management or they do not know enough about the repercussions of the disease.”

R. Shankar, president, Heal Foundation said that, what is common in both cases is a relative lack of knowledge. “We therefore need an innovative long-term educational programme. Women being the centre-point and caregivers in the family should be educated first. They are best positioned in the family to help prevent and manage diabetes and WDC is an effort in this direction.”

Today, in the country over 50 million people have diabetes and another 100 million people are on the verge of developing it. Women can play a significant role in countering the rising incidence of both diabetes and its complications. Therefore it is essentail to intend to raise awareness among women groups and help prevent the disease through education and outreach programmes across families and communities.

The initiative seems to have taken up the challenge in the right earnest with its unique concept of recruiting women analysts. It is believed that with their involvement, this mass movement can go a long way in generating awareness on diabetes, in the process emboldening intentions to fight this growing epidemic.