Rajaratnam Abel MBBS, MPH, PhD

PROFILE:

A medical graduate with a specialisation in public health was involved in a lifetime of work relating to poverty and health, reducing catastrophic health expenditure among the poor, as well as reducing poverty through various interventions in one block of Vellore District, Tamil Nadu, India.

Developing Behaviour Change Communication as a primary intervention helped reduce malaria in selected NGO projects in Odisha and eliminate kala-azar as a public health problem in four districts of Jharkhand.

God helped me to use the expertise gained to train various categories of individuals both during my working period as well as in my retirement.

EDUCATION:

¨PhD, MGR Medical University, July 2006.

¨MPH, Johns Hopkins, May 1981.

¨MBBS, Christian Medical College, Vellore, June 1971

OBJECTIVE

Develop leadership for the health care of the poor in India in the time that God has for me at this stage of my life.

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES:

Public Health Physician Consultant, DHAN Foundation, Madurai, since 2006.
- Secretary and board member, Navjeevan Seva Mandal, a Child Leadership Development ministry in 12 states of India
- Board member, Development Association for Integrated Activity
- Advisory Board Member of Chennai Liver Foundation
- Member Policy Board to DHAN Foundation.

Completed Assignments

Guest Professor, BITS Pilani, CMC BITS programme in MBA Health Systems, 2016 to 2024.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Having worked in 4 mission hospitals in Nepal and India, in 1978 I moved over to the RUHSA Department of Christian Medical College, Vellore, India as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of its Health Unit.

In 1984, I was promoted as the Head of the RUHSA Department, leading and managing a team of over 200 staff, which I continued till my retirement in 2005. The effective and efficient work of RUHSA was recognised both nationally and internationally.

Recognition of RUHSA

1983 The B Roy Award to the founder Dr Daleep Mukarji

1985. The ASSOCHAM Award for Agriculture and Rural Development

1987. THE WHO LISZ Award for Health Education in Public Health

1991. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Award for Rural Development.

In 2004, RUHSA was rated by an independent US agency as AA-.

The broad skills and expertise with which I retired are:

Leadership and management
Advocacy
Equitable programmes for the poor
Research and documentation
Managing a Diploma in Community Health Management Course
Health policy and planning
Community nutrition
Communicable disease control
Reproductive and child health
Primary and Secondary Health Care
Self Help Group
Poverty reduction interventions being managed
Working with Government Departments
International collaboration

My specific experiences are in the following areas:

Integrated health and economic development, including cattle cross-breeding, broiler poultry, vocational training of youth, and agriculture, to reduce the impact of poverty on health..
Implementing an effective Primary and Secondary Health Care programme focusing on safe motherhood, childhood immunisation and child survival, nutrition intervention programmes and family planning.
Effective communicable disease control relating to poliomyelitis, whooping cough, measles and tetanus neonatorum in Tamilnadu, kala azar control in 3 districts of Jharkand, and controlling malaria in select NGO project areas of Odisha.
Organising effective community nutrition programmes including anaemia control
Developed Behaviour Change Communication for diarrhoea control, child malnutrition, kala azar, malaria and anemia control.
Operating an NGO DOTS programme for TB control in Vellore.
Effective management of a HIV/AIDS programme including primary prevention in the community, laboratory diagnosis, community-based care and support, networking and facilitating livelihood opportunities.
Integrating health inputs through a strong micro credit programme involving Self Help Groups of women.
Organising training and human resource development programmes in the entire range of health and development.
Planned, implemented and participated in interdisciplinary research.
Documented much of the work carried out as monographs as well as contributed to writing and publishing scientific articles both as an individual and as a co-author.
Carried out evaluation of both government and NGO programmes.
Provided consultancy to select partner organisations both as external consultants as well as working with their boards.
Applying principles of curriculum, implemented several communication programmes to bring about behavioural changes in the areas of child malnutrition, anaemia, malaria, kala azar, HIV/AIDS and female infanticide.
Participated as part of international consultancy teams in Gujarat, UP, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Italy.
As one of the advocacy strategies, organised district, state, national and international level conferences.
Contributed towards developing women-owned multi-speciality hospitals in Madurai, Theni and in Karnataka.
As a management practitioner in descending order of ability, developed skills in Nominal Group Technique, SWOT Analysis, Strategic Planning, Log Frame Technique, and Stakeholder Analysis, besides other specific tools.
Participated in different capacities in the areas of Public Private Partnerships, as Technical management of a government PHC in Tamilnadu, sharing costs with the government, Member of some Government bodies at district and state level, evaluating government programmes, and training and placing NGO personnel in government PHC programmes.

PERSONAL

Date of Birth :11th September 1945

Place of Birth: Prakasapuram, Thoothukudi District, TN, India.

Sex: Male

Marital Status: Married

Religion: Christian

Current Address:

Plot No. 461 (Old) New 3/2137

Viduthalai Nagar Extension

Sunnambu Kolathur

Off 200 Feet Road,

Chennai, 600117,

TN, India.

Contact details:

Phones: +91 9444889768, (+9144) 22682257

Alt No. 9840169197

Email: drabelindia@gmail.com

Website: http://www.rajaratnamabel.blog

Face Book LinkedIn

MEMBERSHIPS

1. Life Member, Tuberculosis Association of Tamil Nadu, Madras.

2. Life Member, Nutrition Society of India, Hyderabad.

3. Life Member, Indian Public Health Association, Calcutta.

4. Member, New York Academy of Sciences, New York. For 4 years

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Life Member, Delta Omega Society ‑ Alpha Chapter, U.S.A.

2. Fellowship of the International College of Nutrition.

PUBLICATIONS:

Scientific articles in journals—74

Chapters in books —-3

Books —-7

PAPERS PRESENTED IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

Papers have been presented in many international centres, including Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, China; Jerusalem, Campinas, Brazil; Hong Kong, Fiuggi, Italy; Cuenca, Ecuador and New Delhi, India. Conference participation was also possible in the following centres: Singapore, Montreal, Phuket, Thailand.

CONFERENCES ORGANISED

International and National Conferences have been organised on the following topics:

International conference on Community Epidemiology, Covelong, Madras,

Southern Regional Conference on HIV/AIDS in Bangalore,

National Conferences on Kala Azar in Delhi

Poverty eradication in RUHSA, and

State conference on health and malaria control in Orissa.

District conferences in HIV/AIDS were organised in Dindigul and Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu and Chirala, Andhra Pradesh.

Publishing Books:

In retirement, besides other commitments, I am also writing and publishing books. God willing, I would like to bring out more than what has been published and listed below.

Sustainable Health and Development: RUHSA’s Experiences
Living in the Cloud: Empowering virtual teens and twenties toward responsible sexual behaviour. (Out of Print)
Training Manual for Health Workers (Inbakumar Joseph and Jolly Rajaratnam as co-authors)
Businessmen for the Poor: How to reduce poverty by creating small businessmen and businesswomen. (Daleep Mukarji as co-author)
COVID-19: How to prevent getting infected.
Dr John Scudder: World’s first medical missionary