A nationwide campaign by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan to establish the Right to Health Care as a basic human right for every citizen in India. As part of this campaign Public Hearing on Denial of Health Care have been organised all over India in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commision.

The Government of India has been unable to fulfill it’s commitment of ‘ Health for All by 2000 A.D.’ till now. In fact, primary health care services are becoming more and more difficult to obtain for people living especially in urban slums, villages or remote tribal regions. The condition of government hospitals is worsening day by day. Nowadays, in most of the Government hospitals there is inadequate staff, the supply of medicines is insufficient and the infrastructure is also inadequate. There are very inadequate facilities for safe deliveries or abortions in Government hospitals. Given the fact that women do not even get adequate treatment for minor illnesses such as anaemia, services for problems such as the health effects of domestic violence remain almost completely unavailable. At the village level, there is no resident health care provider to treat illnesses or implement preventive measures. All hospitals are located in cities, and here too public hospitals are increasingly starved of funds and facilities. Thus there is lack of availability of government health care services on one hand and the exorbitant cost of private health services on the other. This often leaves common people in rural areas with no other option but to resort to treatment from quack doctors who often practice irrationally. Thus most of the population is being deprived of the basic right to health care, which is essential for healthy living.

The Indian Constitution has granted the ‘Right to Life’ as a basic human right to every citizen of India under article 21. In article 47 of the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution, the Government’s responsibility concerning public health has also been laid down. Yet the Government is backtracking from fulfilling this responsibility. This is obvious from the fact that the Governments proportion of expenditure on public health services has been declining in successive years.

The JSA has adopted the Right to Health and Health Care as a key campaign theme since the Jan Swasthya Sabha in Calcutta  in November – December 2000.  The year 2003 was the silver jubilee year of the ‘Health For All’ declaration. On this occasion, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has launched a nationwide campaign to establish the Right to Health Care as a basic human right. Some of the following activities are being taken up as part of this campaign

• A National Workshop and National Public Consultation with NHRC where some cases of "Denial of Health Care" would be presented. 

• Detailed documentation of individual case studies of ‘Denial of Health Care’ in different regions. Information is being collected in a specific format with the help of a questionnaire. The cases where denial of health services has led to the loss of life, physical damage or severe financial loss of the patient are being emphasised. These case studies will be presented to the National Human Rights Commission. These case studies would help us to depict the real status of provision of the primary health services by the government, would strengthen our demand for improving public health services and would help us in dialoguing with the public health system

• Similarly, situations of structural denial of health care, where PHCs, CHCs or public hospitals are regularly denying basic health services to people should be documented. Questionnaires have been prepared to help in such documentation, based on which the demand for adequate services and facilities may be raised.

• Jan Sunwais on the Right to Health Care are being organized at the district level and at the level of regions within states. JSA linked organizations can organize such ‘Jan Sunwais’ to highlight the state of public health services, and instances of denial of health care / structural denial of health care could be presented in these programmes.

• The National Human Rights Commission, in collaboration with Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, is going to organise Public hearings on Health and Human Rights in various regions of the country from mid-2004 onwards. These regional hearings would be followed by a national public hearing. JSA linked organizations and individuals will document cases of denial of health care and situations of structural denial of health care, and present these during the public hearings, asking for effective action by state health authorities and investigation by the NHRC.
  These are some of the steps in the process being planned to move towards establishing the Right to health care. 

The mobilization is not a one-time effort, ending with the public hearing. It is a process through which local communities, community based organizations, movements and NGOs will regularly interact with local government run health institutions, to improve their functioning and quality of care.  We are happy to report that in several cases, after a local meeting or Jan Sunwai, there has been an improvement in services.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Jan Sunwais on the Right to Health Care are being organized at the district level and at the level of regions within states. JSA linked organizations can organize such ‘Jan Sunwais’ to highlight the state of public health services, and instances of denial of health care / structural denial of health care could be presented in these programmes.

How to organise a Jan Sunwai 

23 November 2004
Jan Sunwai - Mumbai

A public hearing to highlight denial of health care as a human rights violation was jointly organised by the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission on 23rd November at the Fort Campus. Justice Mane, Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission inaugurated the gathering.

Insert Photo

Download report:  Report on Mumbai Jan Sunwai - 23rd November 2004

19 August 2004
Jan Sunwai - Koramangala Slum, Bangalore The Koramangala Slum Development Committee and JAA-K had organised a public hearing on 19th August 2004 in Laxman Rao Nagar slum.  Justice M. N. Venkatachalaiah was the Chair Person.  14 cases of denial were presented to a very large gathering of people from  the slum and other NGOs.

Insert Photo

Download report    Bangalore Jansunwai - Aug 2004