TISS Courseware

Social Action and Advocacy in the field of Health

Rationale: Health for a long time has been viewed as a personal issue - something that has been influenced by personal behaviour, habits, lifestyle, etc. Health work therefore has traditionally been considered an area of social service, of charitable work and there have been many philantropic, charitable hospitals and programmes serving the poor . However, historical experience and scientific evidence shows that the health of communties and populations are influenced by factors which operate at a level broader than personal - even beyond what are defined as social determinants of health like nutrition, sanitation and environment. The availability of medical care, prices and policies related to essential drugs, socially prevalent concepts of health also have a bearing on people's health.

In India more than 10 million people in India are pushed below poverty line because of unaffordable health care expenditure on account of hospitalization. Sub standard and costly health care characterize the private sector and the lack of good quality, accessible care are major weaknesses of the public health care system Over the years, the emerging political economy of life and health has seen profit emerge as its prime mover and driving force, with the consequence that research in the life and biomedical sciences, the delivery of health care and health care itself over time become increasingly subordinated to private interest. New markets and new (private) forms of organizations of the delivery of health services have turned health care into a highly profitable logic and privitization of health care or private management of public health services is an overpowering reality.

Those who oppose the dominant power structures find similar hegemonic forces operate in the health sphere too - medical profession, drug industry, health bureaucracy. The convential system perpetuate an ideology of victim - blaming on technocratic, top down solutions which exclude many and take away their agency.To decisively improve the health of communties, the appropriate approach would be to address these issues through collective action to further the the goal of making conditions more conducive to health. Health as a right has to be made a relevant issue and integrated with other issues on the social agenda and other human rights...

Learner objectives : At the end of the course the students will

1. develop a critical understanding of the right to health and health care

2. develop an understanding of concepts, principles, strategies, tactics related to social action and their application to the field of health

3. be able to critically examine certain health movements / advocacy efforts in relation to their contexts, debates, stakeholders , strategies, successes, limitations and failures.

4. develop basic skills on how to design an advocacy project, prepare a media brief, how to use constitutional, legal frameworks and international instruments for advocacy, analyse health budgets, design and implement an advocacy intiative in the field of health.

Methodology

1. Lectures

2. Readings and discussion

3. Mini skill workshops

4. Films

Assignment 1- (50%) RTI

Developing a Media Brief

Assignment 2: (50%) A critique of the Draft Health Policy 2015 to be send to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Course Schedule

Session No.	Date	Time	Title	Facilitator
1	June 18, 2015	2-4pm	Introduction to the Course Establishing a contract	Brinelle D'souza
2	June 25 , 2015	2- 5pm	Social Action - Concept, Principles , strategies, tactics and models and their application to the field of health	Brinelle D'souza
3	July 2, 2014	2-5pm	The Right to Health and Health Care	Brinelle Dsouza
4	July 9, 2015	2-5pm	Social Movements and Health Movements The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan	Brinelle Ds'ouza
5	July 16, 2015	2- 5pm	The struggle against decriminalization - LGBT movement and section 377	Ashok Row Kavi/ Chayanika Shah/ Ketki Ranade
6	July 23, 2015	2- 5pm	Patents , FTAs and Access to Medicines	Leena/Kajal Bharadwaj Meghaney
7	July 30, 2015	2-5pm	Role of Media in Social Action and Advocacy - A workshop	Yogesh Pawar
8	August 6, 2015	2- 5pm	Unravelling budgets for advocacy	Ravi Duggal
9	August 13 , 2014	2- 5pm	Mental Health Activism in India	Ketki Ranade
10	August 20, 2015	2-6pm	Right to Information Act 2005 Designing an Advocacy Project	Brinelle D'souza
11	TBD		The WHO Watch	David Legge, La Trobbe University through Skype

Reading material: The articles being given to you for each class comprise the essential readings

Methodology

1. Lectures

2. Readings and discussion

3. Mini skill workshops

4. Films