New Delhi: On the eve of National Safe Motherhood Day 2017, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, India (WRAI), in collaboration with the Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (IAPPD), today organised a national event on the theme ‘Quality, Equity and Dignity for Maternal Health’. A petition signed by a staggering 1,43,556 rural women from across India, highlighting their most critical healthcare needs, was presented to Mr J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, who was the chief guest of the event.
Members of Parliament, Mrs Viplove Thakur, Dr Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, Narsaiah Goud, Mr Majeed Memon, and former MP Mr Avinash Rai Khanna discussed the issue of quality of care in maternal health. Other senior dignitaries present at the event included Dr Aparajita Gogoi, National Coordinator of WRAI, Mr Manmohan Sharma, Executive Secretary of IAPPD, Saachi Bhalla, Program Officer, Public Policy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Leila Varkey, Senior Advisor, RCH, Centre for Catalyzing Change.
The initiative is a part of WRAI’s national campaign ‘Hamara Swasthya, Hamari Awaz’, which was launched in December 2016. The objective of the campaign is to amplify rural women’s voices, needs and priorities in healthcare and bring these asks to key government influencers in order urge policymakers to accelerate change in improving the quality of service delivery for women in India. Till date, the campaign has reached out to over one lakh forty thousand women across India to understand what they would need for a safe maternal healthcare in India. The findings reveal that a sizeable 36% of the women have asked for access to maternal health entitlements, services and supplies, followed by 23% women who seek healthcare services provided with dignity and respectful care. Twenty percent of the women seek availability of health providers while 16% seek clean and hygienic health facilities. The analysis also highlights that women desire respectful behaviour from health providers; no caste or religion-based discrimination; one bed per woman in a ward; a birth companion during delivery; privacy and confidentiality during check-ups and treatment; fixed visiting hours and a visiting room to ensure privacy; complete information and counselling; clean toilets and labour rooms; and the availability of skilled doctors, specialists and frontline health workers as key needs. The petition presented at the event will also be critical in helping India achieve its SDG goals in maternal and child health.
The Minister and Chief Guest, appreciated WRAI’s efforts to reach out to over 1.43 lakh women and said that need of hour is to institute a feedback mechanism where women’s experiences can be submitted as case-studies to the Ministry. He also spoke about the need to make Maternal Heath a political priority in the states.
He further highlighted the progress that needs to be made towards providing quality of care to all women in the rural areas, especially those residing in high priority districts. The Government of India is committed towards the goal of ensuring maternal and child health and providing quality of care in health services. Several initiatives such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a direct cash transfer scheme; Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, a programme that provides ante-natal services by skilled provides on the 9th day of every month; the birth companion initiative and several others aim to improve quality of care for maternal health services. These interventions have resulted in a sharp 40.2% rise in institutional births in ten years.
Speaking at the event, Dr Aparajita Gogoi, the National Coordinator of WRAI, said, “Our goal is to encourage and empower women to speak out about the healthcare they want and ensure that their voices are heard. We believe that when women vocalize their priorities, it would be easier for program implementers and policy makers to address their needs. Through our national campaign, ‘Hamara Swasthya, Hamari Awaz’, we have realized that women have four basic healthcare needs, including access to their maternal health entitlements as displayed and informed to them, availability of a skilled health provider, respect, and a clean and hygienic environment. We will continue our endeavor to amplify the voices, needs and priorities of women and bring their asks to high-level influencers.”
