State Consultation On
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State Consultation on Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights - Call for Action!!! Hotel Janki Vatika, Raigarh (Chhatisgarh) 17th & 18th of September, 2016 Organized by: Prayas and Human Rights Law Network Index 1. Background………………………………………………………………………….2 2. Objectives and Outcomes of Consultation……………………………………...3 3. Agenda of the Consultation……………………………………………………….4 4. Consultation- Day 1………………………………………………………………...4 i) Session 1: Inaugural Session………………………………………………4 a. Welcome………………………………………………………………….4 b. Inaugural Address...…………………………………………………….5 ii) Session 2: Introductory Session…………………………………………..5 a. Understanding Sexual And Reproductive Health Rights.………….5 iii) Session 3: Child Marriage and PCMA Act………………………………7 iv) Session 4: Entitlements of Pregnant Women……………………………9 5. Consultation- Day 2……………………………………………………………….11 i) Session 1: PIL………………………………………………………………11 ii) Photographs of Consultation…………………………………………….13 1 Background In continuation with the ongoing process of holding consultations in different districts of each state of the project on Expanding Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Using Law, the first consultation of Chhattisgarh on Women Health and Reproductive Rights and Services was organized in Jodhpur. Many participants who couldn’t be a part of Bharatpur because of the large distance could participate in Jodhpur as their work area is in and around Jodhpur district. The World Health Organization defines sexual health as: "Sexual health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. So the sexual health rights are the type of human rights includes the right of women to have freely control over in making decisions concerning their own sexuality, including their own sexual and reproductive health without coercion, violence or discrimination. Similarly, reproductive health addresses the reproductive processes, functions and system at all stages of life. It implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying and safer sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. So, Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as: Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence. It is estimated that 1 in 3 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth could be avoided if all women had access to health care and contraceptive services, including information, counselling, and services. Unfortunately, the unmet need for contraception, defined as the number of married women aged 15 – 49 who do not use contraception even though they wish to delay the birth of their next child or wish to prevent pregnancy altogether, is reported at 28 million, or 10 per cent of the global unmet need. The National Family 2 Health Survey reports that of all married women age 15-49 in India, just 1.7% use IUDs (intrauterine device), 3.1% use the birth control pill, and 5.2% use condoms. Female sterilization remains the only available option for millions of women throughout India – 37.3% of all married women age 15-49 have had a permanent sterilization surgery in India. Inadequate access to contraceptive information and services constitutes a violation of the rights to life, health, dignity, and equality enshrined in the Constitution of India. Child Marriage is still rampant in some parts of Rajasthan and because of this, a child loses her or his childhood and this leads to gross violation of sexual and reproductive health rights. It is imperative to come together and seriously talk about finding strategies to abolish this practice. Using Public Interest Litigation to fight against child marriage can be one of the strategies. The prevalence of this evil in India of 2015 is a reflection of the deep misogyny harboured by our culture and religious practices. In order to control women’s sexuality, production and reproduction, the strategy to claim women’s bodies at very young ages was evolved. Caste endogamy (maintaining the ‘purity’ of one’s line) too is maintained through this practice, as explained by Babasaheb Ambedkar in various anti-caste writings. Given the context, it was imperative to hold a two day consultation to intervene and ensure the proper implementation of government schemes and also to bring in additional provisions required to bring about desirable changes. Objectives of the Consultation Bring together health activists, Dalit groups, women organizations, persons with disabilities, geographically specific marginalized groups, doctors, lawyers, students, representatives from the government, service providers and media Gain basic knowledge on human rights Be able to identify sexual and reproductive rights issues Link sexual and reproductive rights issues to everyday work Understand roles health workers play in relation to sexual and reproductive health rights Disseminate information about the project and activities 3 Devise future action plan with timeline to implement the strategies and conceive ideas to enhance sharing among the organizations about the developments in their work area The participants will be able to build their capacities around: . Promoting reproductive health rights in development policies and programmes . Monitoring of reproductive health services . Advocating on key focus areas and influence key policy processes . Act as a source of information and guidance on reproductive health rights, policy and practice . To disseminate information about the project and activities . Using the law as a tool for change. Consultation- Day 1 Session 1: Inaugural Session Welcome Mr. Degree Prasad Chouhan, belonging to the Adivasi movement in Chhattisgarh welcomed all the participants and began with the introduction round. The participants belonged to myriad backgrounds and movements such as working with adolescent health and focusing on sexual and reproductive health rights. There were organizations that work for livelihood of people in tribal and rural areas, Dalit groups, organizations working with Mitanins (ASHA workers of Chhattisgarh). Women from Panchayati Raj, teachers, medical students, nurse, women organizations, human rights lawyers, organization promoting sports for the lower castes, etc were also a part of the two day consultation. 4 Inaugural Address Ms. Rajni Soren from HRLN (Human Rights Law Network) gave the inaugural address. She talked about the organization. HRLN is an organization of lawyers and social workers. It carries out various interventions to work towards providing justice to people. She explained the objectives of the two day consultation. There will be discussion on various cases and a plan of action will be sought thereafter to tackle the issues and find solutions. Discussions on various cases that we see from Bilaspur will also be discussed in detail. Health is a burning issue today. Recently we saw a case where due to lack of ambulance, a husband had to carry his wife’s dead body for 12 kilometres. Such incidents tell us one thing. The status of health services is very low in our state. Chhattisgarh is the second state in India that has the least number of doctors and it falls way behind as far as providing quality health care is concerned. This is all the more reason to carry out litigation in the state to increase the accessibility to quality health care especially when it comes to sexual and reproductive health rights of people. Session 2: Introductory Session Understanding Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Mr. Amarnath Pandey welcomed all the participants and shared his happiness to see a large amount of participation at the consultation. The organizations working in the health sector has a close relationship with the government health facilities. It is very easy for the rich elite to access various health services of top notch quality at the five star hospitals because they can afford the expensive health facilities. But people belonging to the lower strata of the society cannot afford good quality services as these are very expensive. Therefore, they are dependant largely of the health services provided by the government health facilities. We see a large number of people, especially in rural and tribal areas relying on quacks because they have immense faith on them and they don’t have to spend a huge amount to get treatment. Faith healers are very popular among the population. Health is a right given to us by our constitution. Today we have provisions for protecting cows and there are strict monitoring systems and punishment is meted out without delay. But it is sad to see that no such extreme measures are taken to penalize or punish those who violate patient rights. We cannot ignore the steps taken by the government to control the population of India. It is again sad to see that the onus of controlling the population lies 5 largely on women. Everything is target based today. Therefore