Recent Updates

The Health Equity Network India (HENI) (with its secretariat at the Health Equity Cluster, IPH Bengaluru) is pleased to announce the fifteenth webinar in the Equilogues series in Nov 2019.

This webinar is based on the chapter ‘Understanding and addressing the inequalities affecting workers in the informal sector in India’ by Yamuna A and Giridhara R Babu (speaker) in the book ‘Health, Safety and Well-Being of Workers in the Informal Sector in India’.

The speaker, Giridhara R Babu, is a professor and head of the Life-course Epidemiology Unit at the Public Health Foundation of India. In this webinar, he will discuss the inequality faced by informal sector workers, the current situation in India and ways to address the inequities affecting workers in the informal sector.

Summary of the talk: In this webinar, the speaker will introduce the concept of social accountability as understood and promoted by the Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health (COPASAH). Illustrations based on COPASAH members’ work will follow. Webinar participants will be invited to share their experiences, understanding and learnings from their social accountability efforts. The upcoming Global Symposium on Citizenship, Governance and Accountability in Health (October 2019) will be discussed in terms of objectives, expected outcomes and themes.

About the speaker: Renu Khanna, a women’s health and rights activist, has a Masters in Business Administration from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, India. She is a co-founder of SAHAJ-Society for Health Alternatives, a reputed organisation based in Vadodara (Gujarat). Renu has worked in the area of health inequity for over three decades – first in tribal areas of Gujarat, the urban poor in Vadodara city and subsequently on health issues of sexual minorities, people living with disabilities, and adolescents. Renu has over four decades of experience as a trainer, action researcher, evaluator and policy analyst in India.

She is on the governing boards and steering committees of several national and international organisations and networks, including the Steering Committee of COPASAH. She is a Joint National Convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and a founder member of CommonHealth Coalition of Maternal Neonatal Health and Safe Abortion.