Right to Primary Health Care Campaign:
The campaign focussing on access to primary health care, from the year 2005 onwards, grew into a larger campaign for strengthening primary health care. During this phase, primary surveys of PHCs was undertaken to understand the gaps in services and for the first time women started submitting memoranda to the District Health Authorities and District Administration on the deficiencies that were found.
Community Based Monitoring (CBM)of Health Services:
National Rural Health Mission that was announced in 2005, came to be partially operationalised in Karnataka only in 2008. The CBM programme through the civil society was officially announced and JMS took lead in the district of Raichur. JMS selected the PHCs of Pothnal, Thoranadinni, Byagwat and Kotnekal for the CBM and planning (CBMP) process. It entailed mobilising communities in all the villages, participatory appraisal of health issues, preparing a health plan at the village level and consolidating at the PHC level, and holding a public dialgoue at the PHC level in collobaration with the health department and the community based organisations. Testimonies of people were collected and efforts were made to constitute Village Health and Sanitation Committees (VHSCs) which later on became Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNCs). Handholding was done of the newly appointed Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and plans were made with Gram Panchayat President and members to optimally utilise untied funds for each village. Report cards on the conditions of services for every village were prepared with colour codes. Red indicated dysfunctional services, yellow indicated average services and green code indicated services that were given optimally to people. In the process, the women leaders of JMS became local experts in the CBM processes and were inducted in the health committees of PHCs. JMS along with other organisations held a district public hearing on the issues of primary health care.
Solidarity with People’s Health Movement (PHM):
JMS forged alliances during this phase with the state and national chapters of PHM, viz. Jana Arogya Andolana Karnataka (JAAK) at the state level and Jan Swasthy Abhiyan (JSA) at the national level. JMS was the key constituent member of the district committee of JAAK and contributed to the state public hearings and the Right to Primary Health Care Campaign at the State level. In 2007, JMS women participated in the National Health Assembly of JSA held in Bhopal.
