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Health
and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) in collaboration with
Aga Khan University (AKU) held a dialogue on 'People's Health Movement'
(PHM) at AKU auditorium on 8 July 2004. Speakers for the occasion
were Dr. B. Ekbal, Health Activist, Educationalist and Neurosurgeon
and convenor, Jana Swastha Abhayan (Indian People's Health Movement)
and Activist of Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), and Dr.
Ravi Narayan, Global Coordinator, People's Health Movement Secretariat.
Dr.
Ekbal spoke on the Kerala experience of health care, and highlighted
its positive and negative experiences. He drew attention to the
fact that as compared to the rest of India, Kerala has well established
networks, namely, education institutions, health care institutions,
ration shops and library networks with a history of strong social
movements and a high investment in the social sector. However he
contended that the Kerala model had moved from success to crisis.
The causes enumerated for this decline in health care included the
current economic crisis; neglect of primary and secondary care;
lack of monitoring; rapid urbanisation; poor health planning; poor
social sanitation and shifting lifestyle with a change in food habits,
sedentary lifestyle and competitiveness. Dr. Ekbal concluded that
hope lay in carrying out development debates as well as through
decentralised of health service and local community participation
in decision making as an effective means of improving the lives
of the people of Kerala and for people of the world.
Dr.
Ravi Narayan in his presentation shared the history and objective
of the People's Health Movement. Dr. Narayan stated that the PHM
process began with a series of networking and discussion activities
worldwide to consider key issues in preparation for an international
gathering - the first People's
Health Assembly (PHA), held in Bangladesh in December 2000.
The PHA's focus was to re-ignite the spirit of Alma Ata under the
slogan of Health for All Now! (Alma Ata had promised Health for
all by the year 2000 but was unable to meet this target). The major
achievement of PHA was the People's Health Chart as an outcome of
the assembly formulated by consensus of all delegates representing
75 countries. Using the PHA as a springboard the formation of Global
Health Movement now known as the Peoples Health Movement is now
in action.
The
People's Health Movement (PHM) is a growing coalition of grassroots
organisations dedicated to changing the prevailing health care delivery
system. This system is considered to be failing to serve the deteriorating
health of most of the poor worldwide. The goal of the People's Health
Movement is to re-establish health and equitable development as
top priorities in local, national and international policy-making,
with comprehensive primary health care as the strategy to achieve
these priorities. It aims to draw on and support people's movements
in their struggles to build long-term and sustainable solutions
to health problems. Dr. Narayan said that the health activists of
almost all the countries in South Asia including Pakistan have been
engaged in different events to promote the People's Health Charter,
and in many countries the contents/principles of the charter are
being promoted and incorporated into national health policies. In
India there is also a movement to make Health an upfront a Constitutional
Right.
The
dialogue provided the audience with an opportunity to understand
and support people's movements through exploring the determinants
of ill health and moving towards an effective process to build long-term
and sustainable solutions to health challenges.
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