Dear friends,
The planned meeting at Chennai is a welcome development. The serious weakening of the Public health system and proliferation of unregulated, often irrational and exploitative private medical sector make it important that all those serious about people's interests should take up Public health as an important issue. However, adding to what Manodeep has said, there are already some existing initiatives which have been taking up the cause of people's health, although whether to call them 'Left' or progressive would depend on one's viewpoint. It will be good if the meeting at Chennai and the further efforts would recognise existing initiatives such as Medico Friends Circle and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, and perhaps seek to complement these rather than 'reinventing the wheel'. Given that a purpose of the meet is "To bring synergy between the efforts of various groups in India trying to address various public health problems..." it would make sense to analyse and interact with existing broad national platforms as the first step. Given the larger challenge of globalisation-privatisation as it continues to impact on the health sector, I sincerely hope that the energies of various groups will be synergised and will interact with each other in this process, rather than creating parallel forums which may have the same basic purpose.