Women and Health Cell - What We Discussed on August 31, 1992 in Bombay
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- Title
- Women and Health Cell - What We Discussed on August 31, 1992 in Bombay
- Date
- August 31, 1992
- extracted text
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(its
WOMEN AND HEALTH CELL, MFC
What We Discussed on August 31,
1992 in Bombay
The first meeting of the women an d 1 i eaI t I ■ group was held in Bombay
on August 31,1992.
Present at the meeting wer e i-lani sha ,
Sathya,
Roopashri,Preeti,
Rupande, Mira Sadgopal, Kamakshi , Lhayanika arid
Swati.
Manisha set the ball rolling by explaining wiry the mfc
had felt
in short that it would provide
the need for issue-based groups:
for
interested individuals to come together and discuss in depth
them..
or undertake programmes in areas which held interest for
The emerging understanding on these issues could then be brought
of the
to the larger forum and thus enhance the understand!ng
entire group, and provide stimulus on these issues.
We started off by a discussion on what each of us saw as the focus
of
the group and delineating areas in which we would like to be
involved.
Sathya funcitioning as the first convenor of the group
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Although
suggested three broad areas which we could work ins
as an
there
has been much work on women and health mfc
mfc as a medical
organisation has been only marginally involved,
in critiquing policy trends e.g.
group could play a useful role
safe motherhood programme,
population, etc.; (2) Hire group could
genertet information
both at the level of secondary and primary
data;
and
(3)
it could provide inputs into on-going campaigns.
For eg several issues are often raised which are never followed up
and this group could do some brainstorming and short list some of
these and work on them.
c
Should the group then take on the role of responding in-depth
to
the questions raised
in any campaign and help
in concretising
demands ?
This would mean that the group would have to make
immediate response given the urgency of the needs of a campaign.
On the other hand,
it was felt that what was important was
that
the group's response should be well-thought out rather than of the
variety except
in the case of
a disaster.
It was
knee-jerk
to see not only what was desirable but also what was
important
A third point was made that sometimes the current focus
possi ble.
of
policy or programmes could well be extended toi include much
For instance,
more than it does and this could be worth defining,
the focus on reproductive health could include not only safe
like
illness but
also problems
motherhood
and gynaecological
, endometriosis, ectopic pregnancies, etc.
It was at this.point that several
of
the part i ci pantsnarrated
experiences which lead them to think aloud on the need to impart a
feminist
perspective in health to health workers on the one hand,
The Madhya Pradesh Mahila Manch
and to feminists on the other.
for
instance,
is organising
just such
a camp lotfor
training
Discussions then
focused on defining the target
activists
groups.
Should
it be health workers who could be sensitised to
women s health issues from a feminist point of view ? Or would it.
be more feasible to conduct
such discussions/workshops
for
feminists working among women and sensitise them to health issues
within a feminist context but with sufficient technical content ?
It was felt that such a programme would also help in countering
government
training etc on topics such as family planning,
reproductive technologies etc.
It was also felt that this woul d
draw many more women into the mfc fold and facilitate a more
informed feminist contribution to on going debates.
However, this
would need a lot of work.
For instance,
(1) evolving a f em i n i st
perspective,
an mfc perspective or at least a working hypothesis
to begin with;
(2) to draw up a curr i cul Jd^br at/1 east a framework
containing all the elements.
There was some discussion on whether
we should address just one topic at a time or a series of related
programmes
areas.
Some members who had been involved in similar
had some inputs to makesMira Sadgopal said that she with two other
white discharge and
was working on two areas for the MP workshop:
menstrual
miseries.
Annie George suggested that since we would
not have sustained interaction with the group it may be dangerous
She informed the group of a
to give training on one topic only,
move in Bombay to revive the idea of a combined training programme
ground.
for health workers which we could utilise as launching
Sathya pointed out that we would have to work with groups who were
workin g in the community,
such as Vikalp.
F'reeti Oza suggested
the programme should address the middle level groups rather
that
the grassroots women because these women would have al ready
than
some exposure.
Manisha suggested that that
the curriculum
had
women
be broad enough to allow room for interaction with
should
they themselves could contribute to the curricular topics
where
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•from their experiences.
It was decided to have a two day meet on January 2 and 3 for which
Dn the basis of
this we
di scussi on papers would be prepared,
a curriculum.
could move towards evolving a perspective and
Barrier Methods for Birth control;
Kamakshi
and Swati:
Chaynika,
I
Manisha:
Women's perceptions of
Population Control;
Roopashri:
body;
Roopande;
Women's; interaction with
medical
women's
Meera
:
Menstrual
mi seri es;
miseries;
Padma:
Maternal
i nsti tut i on ;
Other topics listed: Sexuality; Surgical interventios
morbidity.
at maternity; STDs; violence;Infertility; Contraception; Causes of
mortality and morbidity in women; Tuberculoses in women.
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This in short is what we discussed in August — more or less!
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Please come prepared with your paper,
suppl emantaries to the
promised contributions most welcome.
<a}c_
Qflg- 1. fry -pan 3 (f&wiUy}
The agenda:
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(From 10 am onwards):
1 . The papers (jJpto 1.30 p.m)
Brainstorming on the purpose and objectives of the group,
2.
(Please do come with some ideas on this).
3. Towards a curriculum
4. Possible workshop/programme to be undertaken
5.
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