Sep 07 2026 to Sep 07 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Why should so many people suffer and die from ailments for which care exists?

Based on the book, A Matter of Life and Death, this conversation unpacks the consequences of profit-driven healthcare, weighing the possibilities and limits of law, the governmental responsibilities, and what more equitable systems of public care might look like.

Recognising health as a right begins with recognising the equal worth of every human being, and making care a matter of collective, public responsibility. The session asks why so many, from people living with homelessness, leprosy, tuberculosis, and mental illness, to those facing unequal treatment across class, caste, gender, citizenship, and geography. At its heart is a larger, distinctly Gandhian question: what would it take to build a society in which the last man in the line, the poorest and most excluded person, can enter a health system with the same dignity and the same claim to life as anyone else?

Venue: Seminar Halls
Speakers

Harsh Mander
Author
Harsh Mander is a human rights worker, writer and former Indian Administrative Service officer whose work has centred on hunger, homelessness, communal violence and the rights of marginalised people. He served as Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court in the Right to Food case and as a member of the Prime Minister’s National Advisory Council. He also helped establish Chhattisgarh’s Mitanin community health programme, a precursor to India’s ASHA programme.

Gita Sen
Economist
Gita Sen is a feminist political economist working at the intersections of poverty, gender equality, health and human rights. She is currently Honorary Distinguished Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, and was previously a Professor at IIM Bangalore. She served on the Governing Board of the National Health Systems Resource Centre, the Mission Steering Group for NRHM, and the High-Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has honorary doctorates from the universities of Sussex, Edinburgh, and East Anglia, and the Karolinska Institute.

Rishiraj Bhagawati
Public Health Policy Researcher
Rishiraj Bhagawati is a public health policy researcher and writer with experience in health policy, development and journalism. His research and writing focus on health systems, equity, antimicrobial resistance and the social determinants of health in parts of Asia and Africa, and have appeared in academic and national media publications. He contributed to the research for Harsh Mander’s new book, A Matter of Life and Death.

Annapurna Garimella
Art Historian & Designer
Annapurna Garimella is an art historian and designer whose research explores late medieval Indic architecture and vernacular visual and built cultures in post-Independence India. She is Managing Trustee of Art, Resources and Teaching Trust and heads Jackfruit Research and Design, leading projects in research, design, and curation. Her work spans exhibitions, publications, architecture, and education, including the Ganga Vilas river cruise and MAP Academy’s course on Indian craft. She is also the co-editor of several influential books on South Asian art