Women Activate Public Health Committees in Pune, Solapur and Nashik
The Covid pandemic in many ways re-exposed and exacerbated traditional fault lines in India’s public health sector. How could communities (re)gain trust in the public health system, enhance their collective voice, improve access and utilize state managed participatory forums like the Mahila Arogya Samiti? If people showed up to health committee meetings and identified the needs of their community, would health officials listen?
In Pune, Nashik and Solapur districts of Maharasthra, the Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI) has worked with grassroots organizations to guide communities in forming and activating their Mahila Arogya Samiti or Women’s Health Committee. While the members are women, the committees address health concerns of their neighborhood as a whole.
An urban primary health center (UPHC) serves a population of close to 50,000. For each cluster of 50-100 households, or 250-500 people, the Mahila Arogya Samiti (MAS) is supposed to help connect the community to the health facilities. What difference can an active MAS make? In 9 months, guided by SATHI, 130 MAS have become active across 21 UPHCs in these three districts. 750 MAS members attended training and capacity building workshops.
Through these efforts, the Samitis identified and followed up over 100 health-related issues—spanning sanitation, maternal and child health, and social entitlements. Most were resolved, with a few cases remaining pending.
MAS advocacy triggered visible outcomes—reopening of closed Anganwadis and community toilets, improved sanitation and waste collection, and consistent BP/diabetes medicine supply in public facilities. This has directly reduced out-of-pocket expenditure reinforced public trust in state systems.
130 MAS in Nashik and 28 in Pune have secured municipal funds, thus affirming their legitimacy and sustained role in health governance.
▪ Direct Impact:
o 159 patients shifted from private to public hospitals.
o 236 patients now access government-supplied NCD medicines.
o ₹1.45 lakh secured under MJPJAY for a single beneficiary through MAS facilitation.
o Women-led action influencing health departments to address informal fees and sanitation drives.
Community participation has moved from token presence to tangible influence—turning dormant committees into vibrant, women-led platforms driving equity and accountability in urban health.
The process began with field visits, recruitment of facilitators, and formal collaboration with municipal corporations, resulting in official letters of support. Workshops with 130 ASHAs, who act as MAS secretaries, clarified their roles and facilitated coordination at the UPHC level. Subsequently, 750 MAS members participated in six city-level workshops, followed by 350 settlement-level community meetings led by SATHI facilitators.
These forums became platforms to raise health, sanitation, and entitlement issues, generating collective action. Through these meetings, MAS groups addressed problems such as drainage cleaning, reopening of Anganwadis, demand for immunisation drives, medicine shortages, and informal fee collection. Localised advocacy achieved visible change—such as reopening of community toilets in Nashik, regular supply of BP and diabetes medicines in Solapur, restoration of waste collection in slum areas, and the organisation of a domestic workers’ health camp in Panchavati. Funds were released to 130 MAS in Nashik and 28 in Pune through municipal support, further legitimising their work.
A MAS in Solapur secured a free kidney-stone surgery for a resident, while another successfully reopened a closed Anganwadi through persistent follow-up. A member in Nashik accessed ₹1.45 lakh under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) after being helped to secure eligibility documents. MAS groups in Pune also facilitated the issuance of Urban Poor Health Scheme cards for slum residents, linking them to subsidised treatment options.
Beyond these individual cases, the MAS network has started to influence health-governance behaviour. In several areas, complaints of informal fees at health centres have prompted corrective action by officials. Municipal spraying drives were organised in response to MAS reports of mosquito infestations, demonstrating the growing credibility of these women-led forums as voices of accountability.
MAS initiatives have improved access to non-communicable disease care, by raising awareness about government-supplied hypertension and diabetes medicines and following up with authorities to ensure regular stock. In just four months, 236 patients began procuring medicines through public facilities, while 159 shifted from private to public hospitals for ongoing treatment. This represents a tangible reduction in household medical costs and a shift towards equitable access.