Jan Swasthya Abhiyan National Secretariat

Jan Swasthya Abhiyan is a coalition of 21 national networks of voluntary organizations, people’s movements and national resource groups involved in health care delivery, health policy and health related issues, who participated in the People’s Health Assembly campaign in India in the year 2000, and have continued to participate in this process. These national networks have numerous constituent organisations and beyond these networks, many other organizations have been involved at state, district and block level activities across the country.

The National Coordination Committee is the national decision making body of the JSA coalition, this committee meets about twice in a year. Executive functions are handled by the National Convenor and eleven National Joint Convenors of JSA who belong to different organisations and are from different parts of India.

To strengthen and give regular inputs for National co-ordination, it was decided in the JSA NCC in April 2003 that a formal National Secretariat for Jan Swasthya Abhiyan would be constituted. It was also decided that the National Secretariat would be hosted, in rotation, by a constituent organisations of JSA. The SATHI team hosted the JSA National Secretariat from May 2003 to May 2008. This Pune based Secretariat was supported for national coordination work by N. B. Sarojini from SAMA, a resource group working on Women’s Health, and Dr. Vandana Prasad, a senior volunteer physician, both of whom are based in Delhi and who gave their voluntary part time inputs.

Initially for the first two and half years, there was no financial support for the Secretariat and SATHI team did this work voluntarily. Then during November 2005 to May 2008, the National secretariat and certain nationally coordinated activities of JSA were supported by the Dorabji Tata Trust.

Along with JSA national organisers and in consultation with JSA constituent networks, the National secretariat facilitated or gave inputs for co-ordination to the following activities:

  • National workshop and National public consultation on the ‘Right to health care’ on the 5th and 6th of September 2003 which has constituted the launching point of JSA’s ‘Right to Health Care’ campaign.
  • Public dialogue on Health issues with representatives of various political parties was organized on 12th March 2004 by JSA in Delhi. With main coordination by Delhi based JSA organisers, around 300 people attended the public dialogue including members from different political parties and both print and electronic media. JSA representatives presented a specially prepared policy brief, which outlined the current health scenario and called for specific political initiatives in health care.
  • Regional public hearings on Right to Health Care were organised by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in collaboration with JSA in various parts of country in 2004 –
- Western region (Bhopal, July 2004)
- Southern region (Chennai in August 2004)
- Northern region (Lucknow in September 2004)
- Eastern region (Ranchi in October 2004)
- North-eastern region (Guwahati in November 2004)
  • National public hearing on Right to Health Care on 16-17 December 2004 at New Delhi was organised jointly by JSA and NHRC.
  • Coordination concerning NHRC National Review Meetings: In order to follow-up on the implementation of the Action Plan, based on JSA suggestions, NHRC had organized a National Review Consultation in Delhi on 4th March 2006. Based on the reports submitted by the states, some JSA constituents prepared a rejoinder on the actual situation as observed by them at the ground level, in their respective states. JSA state organisers from ten states made presentations of “State Health Rights Report cards” in presence of the state health department and NHRC representatives. A second review meeting was organised by NHRC on 6th March 2007, in Delhi. SATHI as the JSA National Secretariat was involved in the co-ordination with the NHRC as well as in mobilizing state JSA constituents towards the preparation for these events.
  • Co-ordination in context of National Health Assembly II in 2007 – With major responsibility being taken by Bhopal and Delhi based JSA teams, certain coordination was done by the Pune based secretariat with concerned persons regarding developing the programme of NHA II, relating to the session on “Dialogue with Policy Makers” and with rapporteurs during the NHA II.
  • As a follow-up of National Health Assembly the Pune based National Secretariat undertook compilation and editing of notes taken during several sessions of NHA-II which contributed to compilation of the first draft of the final report for NHA-II.
  • Facilitation of National Coordinating Committee meetings – From May 2003 to June 2008, the Pune based secretariat was involved in facilitating JSA NCC meetings including development of agendas, issuing of invitations, communications with state contact persons, organizing logistics and drafting and finalization of minutes.
  • Updating of the JSA website - The SATHI team has been updating the JSA website since 2006 including uploading of NHA II booklets and other JSA documents.

Since SATHI had been hosting the National Secretarial since April 2003, it was decided that some other JSA constituent should take up this responsibility. In a JSA NCC meeting in Nov. 2007 it was decided that the National Secretariat would be shifted to Bhopal and that Madhya Pradesh Vigyan Sabha (MPVS) would coordinate activities of the National secretariat on the behalf of All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN). This responsibility is being handled by MPVS since mid-2008.

For more details click on http://www.phm-india.org