District Level Stakeholders Consultation on Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) in Murshidabad. In Collaboration with Department of Health and Family Welfare, GoWB

The JSY consultation is an attempt by PACS to take forward the process of engaging and initiating a dialogue on the thematic issue of JSY with different stakeholders at the district level.

The process was initiated with the West Bengal State-level Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on JSY, at Science City on 24 February 2011.

Key objectives

• An update on the district-level implementation of Janani Suraksha Yojana by the service providers and their viewpoints.
• A summary of the Civil Society’s viewpoints on the implementation, critical gaps and key challenges at the district level.An experience sharing of PRI’s role as a health actor for effective implementation of JSY.
• An opportunity for PACS to understand various-stakeholders and their view-points as well as the district level issues impacting JSY implementation within Murshidabad.
• An opportunity to find ways of working together to strengthen JSY initiatives in Murshidabad district.

Background

The following recommendations emerged from the state consultation to take the process forward:

• Initiating engagements with district level health administration, PRIs, Civil Society groups and networks to further explore and comprehend the district-specific issues towards strengthening JSY initiatives.
• Building joint understanding on present situation of access to JSY among socially excluded communities
• Exploring strategies on sensitization of health service providers at different levels.

Hence, understanding the different perspectives on JSY implementation and identifying the critical challenges (impacting both demand and supply side of things) becomes all the more relevant to PACS as a rights based program to organize theme-based campaigns and mobilize/ strengthen advocacy initiatives around JSY in the districts.

As a way forward from the consultation, PACS is organising the first of the district series of consultations in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, in joint collaboration with the District Health Administration.

It is important to mention that this joint collaboration is a key step in forging links with the district health administration and building synergies with them to take the process forward in a collaborative manner. This also demonstrates the government’s solidarity with the PACS mandate towards effective implementation of JSY initiatives in Murshidabad to ensure that the health issues affecting the socially excluded community get addressed.

Contact:

To find out more about the consultation, please contact the PACS National Office:

Call: +91 11 24372660/24372699

Email: query@pacsindia.org