Author: phmindia_jsa

India continues to have one of the most privatised health systems in the world. India’s public health expenditure in terms of percent of GDP (1.15 percent) spent on healthcare places India at 12th from the bottom, in the company of countries such as Myanmar, Haiti, South Sudan, Timor-Leste and Pakistan. THE union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) supported National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) has recently published (August 2016) the National Health Accounts for 2013-14. While summary data for expenditures on health are published regularly, a rigorous estimate of health expenditure in the country is being published after a gap of ten years (after 2003-04). While overall estimates have been published, the document promises that “policy interpretations of the data will follow including estimation of expenditures by diseases, age and gender in the coming year”. Health expenditure relate data is an important planning tool as it provides information regarding the direction of public policy towards provision of healthcare and also provides insights into the financial burden faced by households while accessing healthcare services. Read more….  

The 6th National Convention on Right to Food & Work was held from the 23 – 25 September, 2016 in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The convention saw the participation of over 2000 persons from all across the country. The parallel workshops and the plenaries came out with important resolutions on the issues that the campaign needs to focus on as well as some concrete plans for action. Some immediate points of action include a meeting on NREGA in November, a day of action at states on November 22nd on implementation of maternity entitlements and against destruction of PDS through Aadhar and PoS, workshops for youth on democratic rights and RTF and a meeting with NAPM on resource loot. A national campaign against the exclusion of beneficiaries from the PDS, pensions and other schemes because of the gaps in PoS machines and UID numbers will be planned..read the Call to Action from the workshop in Hindi and English

Public Services International (PSI), Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and Health Employees Union, Delhi (HEU) jointly organized a two day National level workshop on “Informalisation of Employment in the Health Sector” at Indian Social institute, New Delhi. The workshop was an effort to bring together public health activists, trade union representatives and organizations in the health sector to understand the nature and trends of informalisation of employment in the sector, to develop strategies to respond to the challenges posed by these trends and to create a platform for further joint work. Read the workshop report here: psi-jsa-heu_workshopreport_final

The Health sector has reasons to be disappointed by the Union Budget for 2016-17 presented on 29th February. Budget provisions for healthcare indicate that the Government intends to continue with its policy of promoting ‘managed care’ where publicly provided services are progressively starved of resources and even public funded services are increasingly outsourced to the private sector. This is the principal take away from the budget provisions for health care. Read full JSA Press Statement…

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It is an established and accepted fact that the health of the people in a country depends on the access to a network of basic needs that includes nutritious food and health care. A conducive physical and biological environment at the place of living and work, egalitarian social relationships, emotional well being as and a peaceful social environment are all recognised determinants of health of any population. To those of us working in the field of health, it is clear that there is a significant deterioration in the conditions needed for people’s health. Read more…