MFCM116: Women and Health Cell - Report of Meeting on July 25, 1993.pdf
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US
WOMEN AND HEALTH CELL.
•K'
Report of Meeting on July 25,1993
The meeting began with a brief background about the women and
heal th cel 1 and about the agenda of this meeting, viz, to discuss
the nature of the forthcoming mfc annual meet on reproductive
heal th.
The women and health cell evolved out of a need for a forum f ordiscussing
in depth issues in the area.
It was among the man y
cells which emerged as a means of reviving the mfc in the context
of the problems many of the members encountered in discussing in
depth certain1 issues which may not be of interest to others or
toi
discuss
inputs
where
others> may not have sufficient
and 1ci ty-based
Several
other cells and regional
intensively.
!
the theme c ?
groups have also been formed. The adoption of
the mfc was
for the next annual meet o
reproductive health
I
its
prompted
by several considerations. In 198? mfc had hel d
first meedting on women and health.; in 19S7 in family planning
and
it seemated
seemded both appropriate and necessary to look at these
areas again especially in the context of
the new interests.
Moreo'er reproductive health is Igeing
b,eing discussed at many
levels
and in many circles and is being used as a term to encompass
several issues; ■ abortion,
abort!,on, contraception, maternal health hreai-tjfv,
resproductive research,
research,
and so on.
How do we respond -to t h e
ongoing discussions, and participate in them Keeping in mind the
fact that the new interest is ideologically rooted in the process
of globalisation of the economy on the one hand, and on the otherthat under this umbrella many issues which have been of
deep
concern to women are being discussed ft was felt that mfc could
provide a platform for free discussions.
All
participants generally agreed that given
the- extensive
cover age to the population control lobby, we need to be constantly
active and to take positions in public.
Apfc the same time we
must not dissipate our energies by competing for space.
We must
try to build a broad platform accomodating a range of views.
This raised
rai sed the question of whether there can be
population policy at all, or should trie entire
population policy be discarded.
a
f emini st. '
f’l O L. 1 or i
T
cl
After this wide ranging exchange of ideas, the meeting got down to
di scussi ng the meet.
IWhat do we mean by reproductive health which
is the focus of the forth^coming meet ? Is (tji) synonymous with
women's health ?
If it (^i) not, then should we use the term which
is
being so extensively used
internationally and by
the
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reproductive
But if we do expand the concept
of
government ?
health to include the range of issues which impact on women's
i ssues as
do we then focus on these and leave out such
heal th,
contraception and concentrate on'say, the maternity vs employment
debates.
At this point a strong opinion was expressed that the .
meet should focus on ‘reproductive health' and we should not shy
away from using- the term simply because it is being used
in
a
limited sense today.
We should instead try to provide an
alternative view of reproductive health.
We should project the
view that for womenTheal th and reproduction are interlinked in a
holistic way.
However, there may not be a consensus on what
is
meant by reproductive health.
In
the course of a freewheeling discussion on this,
several
issues were thrown up:
the need to examine the area of
social
construction of maternity, of the state's role in defining mother
hood,
of the need,
to arrive at new definitions and new
ways of measuring health; of the problem of bringing experiential
knowledge into formal knowledge, of the particular problem of TB
f among women.
It was felt that the objective iof the meet should
be to provide a forum for intense discussions in an atmosphere
conducive to such interaction and not necessarily to arrive at
a
consensus on all issues.
The point is to create a broad platform
fur ongoing interaction among like minded people on these issues.
Il was decided that the meeting would be for
for
two days,
in
Sevagram, on December 27-29. A small group of four: Aditi., Padma,
Chayani ka,
and Malini would facilitate the preparations for the
meet.
The following topics were decided upon and
made
for writing background papers:
commi ttments
Work,
Morbidity and Reproductive health:
a background paper
linking narrow reproductive health concerns to women's soci al
location in terms fo work, and the consequent morbidity patterns
and how
cope
Veena
Shatrguna;
Population policies— a review and critique of policies Roopashri
Sinha;
Feminist critique of demographic studies:
Mala R a m a n a t h a
Social
Construction of Womanhood which will
discuss
perceptions,
roles and models forced upon women by society
state at different times for different purposes: Manisha;
Research
and Diffusion of results— tH^biases
in
the
and
formlulating
problems, designing studies and in disseminating results and will
include the problem of non recognition of experiential
knowylege
in research studies :
Chayanika and
Swatija;
*
Research
and Confusion: problems of methods and‘methodologies Ani 1
2
Laws relati ng to
state interventions -Legislation:
Review of
to
aborti on
Mina Swaminathan
;
Laws relating
materni ty:
steri1i sati on : Asha, Sushma;
so gross
mortality and morbidity- the gross and not
Reporti ng
concei ved
i 11
data due to the use of
mi srepresantati onr of
definitions—
f
/V-Critique
of methodology Malini. Karkal;
Men ' s role in/experience in
Anant,
Ravindra, Mohan;
Fasci sm,
Amar;
f undamental i sm
reproduction;
possible
Reproducti ve
Heal th
and
authors—
Dhruv
and
There have been
Review of campaigns:
Redefining strategies:
several campaigns undertaken by women's movement at various points
what were the
campaigns take off,
of time.
How dR3» these
t '
objectives and what did they achieve, and what was their fall-out
— Net—en Campai g^ Sahel i ;
campaign against amniocentesis Forum
Balasubrahmanyan^) J
against sex determination ; EF1 camapign-Vimal
women;
Camapaign against
rape— Forum against oppression of
«*
Funding
agencies
j
and population policies Ravi
Duggal;
Maternal mortal i ty^ a couuntrywise review Sathyamala;
fewer
vs home deliveries: do hospital deliveriesi mean
Hospitai
for
deaths and reduced morbidity '? Can we make an <ar guffrent
ver i es
promoting
home deliveries as against institutional deli
,
Hand, sha;
Non-hormonal contraception Mira Sadgopal;
Exploding the Tamil
Nadu myth of
fertility rate decrease
without developmental inputs: TN is (|jei ng,rTuSw| promoted as a model
by the population
lobby for it*achievement of
bringing down
fertility rates even without developmental inputs,
What really
are the underlying factors and how do they affect women#’ Sundar i
Ravindran;
Gynaecological problems Rani Hang;
Abc-’-t ?
a
review Amar and
Adi ti :
Abuse annd sex education: .Asha.
These background papers will be used to formulate■ a mor e1 concrete
the foilowing
agenda in the coming months.
Please note that
authors have promised t^o submit their papers Iby August
end;
Roopashri, Amar and Aditi, FASDP; Chayanika;
the
Hal ini,
Asha,
I- lease send
deadli ne for the rest is the end of September.
al 1
3
19 June Blossom Socy, 60-A Pali Road,
papers to Padma Prakash at
Bombay 400 050 (ph 64.2 1265; off: 261 6072-73 )<tehe-ab-ob^aBandra,
..
For further information you may contact Aditi
Iyer at
FRCH 34A Thadani Marg, Worli Bombay (ph: 4938061)
or Chayanika
Shah at 2, Vishwadeep, 95 Bhaudaji Road, Matunga Bombay 400 019.
(ph: 437 9482).
As is obvious this is not an exhaustive report but I hope it is a
sufficient one which will prompt you into action,
Hoping to hear
from you soon.
August 3/8,1993
padma
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