27/06/2026
Key takeaways from the “Health and Healthcare in West Bengal” Symposium
Academics, policymakers, and civil society partners gathered at the Amartya Sen Research Centre to discuss health financing, social protection, and primary care readiness
On February 13–14, 2026, the Amartya Sen Research Centre in Kolkata hosted a landmark symposium on “Health and Healthcare in West Bengal.” Organized in collaboration with the Pratichi India Trust and O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), the two-day event established a multidisciplinary platform for academics, policymakers, healthcare practitioners, trade union representatives, and development partners to critically examine West Bengal’s health system.
Addressing System Performance, Financing, and Equity
The symposium tackled interconnected challenges across various levels of healthcare delivery through technical sessions, keynote addresses, and panel debates. Central themes included:
Social health protection: Evaluating the performance and reach of schemes such as Swasthya Sathi and the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme.- Systemic bottlenecks: Identifying key hurdles, including insufficient public health spending, high out-of-pocket costs for outpatient care and essential medicines, and unequal access for marginalized populations.
- The limits of insurance-led models: Emphasizing that insurance schemes cannot replace a well-funded, publicly provisioned primary care network or effective regulation of private providers.
Participants concluded with a unified vision: achieving universal, equitable, and financially protective healthcare in West Bengal requires strengthening public health infrastructure, improving governance of social protection schemes, and expanding community-embedded primary care.
