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Experts link women's welfare with better health care

PILANI (RAJASTHAN): Gender experts, researchers and policy-makers from 18 developing countries meeting here have laid emphasis on better nutrition, reproductive health care, safe motherhood, value addition to services and dietary improvements for women to raise their status and bring about their empowerment.

The experts analysed various aspects of development and welfare of women with prime focus on their health at a three-day conference on “Empowering women in developing countries through better health care and nutrition” which began at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) here on Thursday.

The Women Studies and Societal Development Unit of BITS and the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries, New Delhi, are jointly organising the global round-table, supported by UNICEF-Rajasthan.

National Rural Health Mission's Adviser (Public Health Administration) Padmanaban said good quality maternal care would help reduce maternal mortality rate which at present stands at 254 per 1 lakh in the country. He said the reduction in total fertility rate would also get reflected in maternal health.

BITS Vice-Chancellor L. K. Maheshwari said the adoption of a region-specific approach could ensure better delivery of nutrition and health services.

He also advocated use of “structural methods” to address malnourishment, anaemia and reproductive ailments among women.

UNICEF-Rajasthan chief Samuel Mawunganidze affirmed that the issue of nutrition, accorded significance by the UN Millennium Development Goals, should be put prominently on the political agenda to get speedy results. “This will also ensure public accountability in this matter,” he said.

Health care risks

Besides Indian experts, the other participants are from countries such as Mauritius, Syria, Egypt, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Iran, Oman, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Russia, Indonesia, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

The presentations during the technical sessions threw light on health care risks confronting women of child-bearing age and new trends in the field of women's health care and nutrition. The recommendations will be submitted to the government authorities to speed up expansion of health care services.

In one of the technical sessions, S. D. Gupta, Director, Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur, said India could achieve the Millennium Development Goal relating to maternal health by 2015 if the decline in the MMR continued as a “steady trend” by then.

The participants felt that there are a number of challenges such as poverty, complications during childbirth, unsafe home delivery and malnutrition which should be addressed properly. Community mobilisation, strengthening leadership and people's active participation in health services were among the significant suggestions made.

The Women Studies Unit at BITS, sponsored by the University Grants Commission, undertakes various activities for uplift of women in the socio-economic and health sectors, while the NAM S&T Centre is an inter-governmental organisation with a membership of 44 countries spread over Asia, Africa, West Asia and Latin America.

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