Need for specific commitments

VADODARA, March 9: A meeting on women's health and empowerment was held at the Women's Studies Research Center WSRC of MSU to take stoc...

VADODARA, March 9: A meeting on women8217;s health and empowerment was held at the Women8217;s Studies Research Center WSRC of MSU to take stock of the situation now five years after the International Conference on Population and Development ICPD which was held at Cairo in 1994.

The ICPD was a landmark conference where the relationship between population, development and environment were highlighted. The program of action adopted at the conference required specific commitments and action by the signatories, who include India.

Those present included Dr M.Gandotra of the Population Research Center in addition to representatives from a number of women8217;s organisations.

Spelling out the workshop objectives, Professor Amita Verma of the WSRC said that India made certain commitments when joining the ICPD. Now five years later we need to look at what has been achieved in terms of policy and practice; what obstacles have impeded our progress; what resources we have and what we need.

Verma said that the partnerships between NGOs and the government and between NGOs themselves needs to be studied to measure the extent to which they have succeeded in moving the agenda forward. The question of what next also needs to be addressed.

quot;Cairo represented a paradigm shiftquot;, said Verma, quot;instead of fertility we were now talking about empowerment. The shift was from a target based approach to a target free approach. From a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach. Our meeting is to look into whether mindsets have changed or notquot;.

Following Verma8217;s introduction there was a talk on the highlights of ICPD programme of action by Renu Khanna of WOHTRAC Women8217;s Health Training Research and Advocacy Center and a presentation by various organisations working in the field of women8217;s rights on their work and how it relates to the ICPD.

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Renu Khanna spoke of Saathis work among the tribals of the Panchmahals. She said that Saathi is trying to address women8217;s health issues by building bridges between traditional concepts of health and modern allopathic concepts.

Aruna Lakhani, Chief Co-ordinator of the Deepak Charitable Trust, mentioned WSRC8217;s efforts to involve men in their programmes.

She also noted that the NGO Chetna has done a study on NGO relations with Public Health Centers PHCs and is trying to involve the District Health Office in its work.

Dr Maya Hajra criticised government efforts in the area of women8217;s health, saying the government always tries crash programs and they always crash.

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The post-lunch session saw a group discussion in which four groups addressed questions on ICPD and reproductive health.