RSS-affiliate demands govt to issue guidelines on identifying conflicts of interest in policy making

The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagaran Manch Tueday said it has demanded that the Centre should issue guidelines on identifying and managing conflicts of interest in policy making, especially in the health sector.

"Alarmed" that the situations of conflicts of interest in health and nutrition policies can have a negative impact on public health or the economy, it said the Centre "has not taken any serious action" in this direction.

"The government and state governments should issue a notification for declaration of interests by all participants in all official meetings, related bodies, expert committees. The Centre should issue guidelines on identifying and managing conflicts of interest," Ashwani Mahajan,the co-convenor of the SJM, said in a statement.

It has also asked the Centre to formulate and implement tools to identify and manage conflicts of interest in public policy, programmes with the use tools, including those suggested by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and World Health Organisation (WHO).

It further demanded enactment of a legal framework to prevent and manage conflicts of interest.

Individuals and organisations in various capacities such as law, economics, media, nutrition, among others, had come together at the roundtable conference of 'Conflicts of Interest in Public Policy' organised by the SJM and the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) and discussed the concepts, issues and methods of preventing and managing conflicts of interest in public policies.