In the month of August, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the city of Mumbai had crossed 7.5 lakhs, while the total number of deaths due to the pandemic was close to 16,000. On September 2, the city saw a significant rise in new cases as well as fatalities.
Despite being the financial capital of the nation and boasting of a municipal corporation that is the richest in India, Mumbai witnessed an unprecedented crisis during the pandemic, especially in the first year when hospitals denied admissions to COVID-19 patients due to a shortage of beds, and frustrated patients were left vulnerable and helpless at the sight of inflated hospital bills. Families had queued up outside pharmacies in a desperate bid to source essential COVID-19 drugs which came at ten times the actual cost. Ambulance owners had a field day charging thousands of rupees for transporting the dead to cemeteries at a distance of hardly 1.5kms.
Even as vaccination has become the only way to contain the transmission of the virus, a high number of Mumbaikars in the past few months had to return from vaccination centres without receiving the jab as despite being the richest corporation, the BMC claimed it had no vaccines to vaccinate its citizens.
It is against this backdrop that Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Mumbai, along with Jan Andolan Sangharsh Samiti (JASS) have begun the 'Mumbai Health Campaign' in a bid to demand accountability and answers from authorities. "The Mumbai Health Campaign has been initiated to protect people’s health rights in the current situation through improved access to health services and vaccination, preventing or minimizing the third wave and building public awareness among various sections of people regarding right to healthcare. The government needs to increase the budget and manpower to strengthen public health care system in the city. In the past months, COVID-19 has exposed the exploitation by the private healthcare sector which needs to be regulated through a law in the state of Maharashtra," says Kamayani Bali Mahabal, co-convenor of JSA- Mumbai.
Both JSA and JASS are batting for a Right to Healthcare Act in the state of Maharashtra which they say will ensure access to free, quality healthcare for all residents of the state, will strengthen and reform public health services, and will harness and regulate the private healthcare sector under a publicly organised system. The movement, says Mahabal, will also help in ensuring a secure livelihood and safe working conditions for the frontline workers in Mumbai and across the state of Maharashtra, such as doctors, nurses, Aasha workers.
"Today there is a free reign given to the private sector for profit. According to National Standards (NUHM), where there is a need for 829 hospitals, there are only 198 in Mumbai today. The public health system is concentrated in the southern part of Mumbai. Here, too, the western and eastern suburbs have been neglected. Today, the Maharashtra government spends 0.5 per cent of the state's gross domestic product on health. Mumbai Municipal Corporation, which spends 25 to 30 per cent of its budget on health, has now reduced that expenditure to 12 to 9 per cent. We, the citizens of Mumbai, are determined to get our right to health and for that we are running this signature campaign. We urge the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the state government to immediately accede to our demands and provide competent health care to all Mumbaikars," said Ajit Patil, of the Jan Andolan Sangharsh Samiti.
