NGOs try to make women’s healthcare needs heard
A statewide campaign to capture voices of women about their needs and concerns in healthcare was launched by a group of NGOs in Jaipur on Wednesday.
The campaign titled “Hamari Awaz Suno”, aims at getting women to voice their healthcare needs and getting the panchayati raj institutions to address these.
The campaign was launched by the NGO Chetana, which heads the SuMa (Rajasthan Surakshit Matritva Gathbandhan).
April 11 is also Kasturba Gandhi’s birthday, which is observed as National Safe Motherhood Day.
The campaign will give a voice to healthcare needs of 6,500 women from 21 districts, said Dr Smita Vajpayee of Ahmedabad-based Chetna.
The campaign was launched from Hasanpura neighbourhood of Jaipur where women spoke of issues such as uncivil behaviour by doctors and staff, cleanliness in the government women’s hospital, staff asking for bribes, lack of female doctors and staff in the labour rooms, Vajpayee said.
“Women want respectful maternity care,” she said, adding that the campaign is part of the global “What Women Want” initiative that was also launched on Wednesday.
Involving panchayati raj officials is crucial for improving healthcare and other government services, she said.
Chetna is working in 14 districts and improvements are visible where sarpanchs and other village-level officials take interest and respond to people’s needs. Public representatives of panchayati raj institutions and Suresh Chand Gupta, joint director, panchayati raj department, and Dr Sam Mittal, director, health department were among those present on the occasion.
JAIPUR: