Health Sector

Govern-H: Humanising Health and Democratising Healthcare Sittilingi, Tamil Nadu (January 2023)
In collaboration with Tribal Health Initiative

Govern-H was conceptualised by Barefoot Academy and the Tribal Health Initiative as a 3-day workshop on the governance of Health. Intended for medical professionals wanting to embark on a self-exploratory journey in healthcare, the workshop would help participants explore the social, economic, and political determinants of health as well as understand how various systems, structures, and policies impact healthcare institutions, both public and private.

The workshop began with an ice-breaking session that helped participants open up about their experiences with the healthcare system and why they chose to become doctors. After this, a trading game was played with chickpeas that would help participants view structures of power and policies around healthcare from the perspective of different socio-economic groups in society. The game started with everyone on an equal footing but soon created two distinct classes of people, in terms of their possessions- the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. The participants struggled to grapple with their simulated identities which often came in conflict with their real-life identities and personalities. As the exercise progressed, a natural partnership emerged among the ‘haves’, while the ‘have-nots’ struggled with multiple dilemmas on how to survive and win back their bargaining power. The exercise provoked a discussion on internalisation – as to how structures of power condition one’s behavior and responses in certain ways. The intense and disorienting perspectives that emerged from the session, triggered discomfort among the participants, along with a shared sense of anxiety regarding the work they do, its effectiveness, and their readiness to face obstacles in a bid to ensure affordable, quality healthcare for all. Overall, the larger question of whether healthcare.

The next day aimed at highlighting the influence of social identities especially, caste and gender, on health and healthcare in India. Participants, by imagining their needs and wants through the lens of socially marginalised groups, realised just how inaccessible indignifying primary healthcare still is for crores of Indians across the country. Despite coming to grips with such a dismal picture of modern healthcare, participants did not lose hope for a better future and engaged actively in discussions around Health as a Right, in the context of the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution of India. The workshop ended on a positive note on how to imagine a more humanitarian, community-centric, and decentralised healthcare system for our future generations, despite the various struggles and dilemmas doctors, as a community face, working with the health system of today.