Whose Health Care?Our Health Care!
To help communities access quality care through public institutions, and hold the system accountable, AID in collaboration with SATHI is carrying out health rights training and initiatives in several districts of Maharashtra and Bihar.
In Bihar SATHI trains a group of health workers who are part of a labor union and experienced in advocating for wages, entitlements and in
In the video at left you can see a movement well versed in the language of land rights translate that to assert that health care is a right.
What does it mean to say that health care is a right?
To say that health care is a right is to recognize that the entire public health infrastructure is there to serve the people and in fact belongs to the people. This applies to public health centers and hospitals, as well as the staff such as the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and the doctors. People have a right to their services. Patients and relatives facing discrimination, delay, intimidation, condescension, unofficial charges and other forms of denial, neglect, disrespect or harassment need not suffer in silence.
Jo doctor sarkari hai, vo doctor hamari hai!
The decades-long struggle for land rights has popularized the slogan, very familiar to these young women in Bihar, “Jo jamin sarkari hai, vo jamin hamari hai!” or “public land is our land!”
Similarly, as part of the health rights workshop that SATHI conducted for Swasthya Karyakartas or health activists, from Saharsha, Katihar and Araria districts, the trainees learned to assert: “Jo ASHA sarkari hai, vo ASHA hamari hai!”
“Jo doctor sarkari hai, vo doctor hamari hai!”
“Jo hospital sarkari hai, vo hospital hamari hai!”
In other words:
Whose ASHA? Our ASHA!
Whose doctor? Our doctor!
Whose hospital? Our hospital!
How SATHI helps people claim health rights
To make right to health a reality as enshrined in India’s constitution and asserted in policy documents of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Mission, SATHI
- runs a helpline to guide patients in accessing care through public services or coverage for private expenditure through the national health insurance scheme
- trains communities to participate in public health committees such as the Mahila Arogya Samiti that allow them to communicate with officials, raise concerns and get budgets allocated for local needs
- educates the public on patients’ rights in private health care, including those enshrined in the Clinical Establishments Act that prevent overcharging and denial of care
- trains Swasthya Karyakartas, or health rights activists who educate and organize communities at the village level and when needed accompany individual patients to advocate for their right to health care
- publishes stories on people’s own experiences with health and health care to bring underrepresented health narratives into wider public awareness