Empowerment of Women in 21st Century

Both the Central as well as the State Governments are focusing on the implementation of existing programs, launching new projects, advocates for the enactment of new policies and laws for development & empowerment of women. This the true story of women and explains what type of empowerment really women have!!!

During my last visit to Karanjia, I have got the opportunity to interact with one lady came to Tato CHC for delivery. This was her 6^th Issue, that is she has 05 (3-Male & 2-Female) living children and 1 has died earlier. Her MCP Card tells that she is 35, but according to her she only 27 years old. The age of the first child was 08 years old and she was married 08 years back i.e when she got married she was 08 months pregnant. This pregnancy was because of her Uncle (Father’s Brother). The current situation forced her to marry a person whose wife was died earlier, have a young child & double her age.

She has accepted everything and expects that her sufferings will be wiped out after this marriage. But this was the beginning of another era. During the 08 years of her marriage, she gave birth to 06 children.  She has felt the consequences of frequent childbirth and also aware of the available Family Planning methods but not able to accept. It is because of the social norms i.e if she accepts any Family Planning methods she will be socially restricted. This apart her husband also in a doubt that she has affair with other (Son of First Wife).  

We all (Govt., Private, Development Agencies) share that we are working to safeguard the rights & entitlements as well as empowerment of women. What empowerment really means???

Ø  Is it the formation of SHGs ??

Ø  Is it providing seed money during election ??

Ø  Is it a reservation of seats in Jobs/ election ??

Ø  Is it launching of new programs/ projects for women ??

Ø  Is it highlight few related issues in media for political millage ??

Ø  Is it enactment of new policies/ laws for empowerment ??

 Or something else that we all need to explore!!!!

Use of Mobile Based Technology (Parivar Swasthya Vaani) increase awareness and acceptance of different methods of contraception

Nebedita Mohanty (32), ANM-Gambharimunda HSC of Banpur CHC, Khordha shared that use of Mobile Based Technology (Parivar Swasthya Vaani) help us to reach more ECs especially males and resulted in increasing the number of users.

 Name                   : Nibedita Mohanty

Sub-Centre           : Gambharimunda

Block                    : Banapur

District                  : Khordha

Nibedita Mohanty (32), ANM-Gambharimunda, HSC

Gambharimunda is one among the 19 Sub-Centres of Banapur block covering 13 Revenue villages of the locality. The Sub-centre is 10-15 km away from the block headquarter. A total of 9502 population including 1630 Eligible couples, 70 Pregnant Women, 121 infants, 735 under Five children and lactating mothers depends upon the Sub-Centre for health care services.  For smooth implementation of all programs and delivery of health care services at the doorstep 29 community level workers (09-ASHAs, 16-AWWs 1-HW(M) and 1-ANM) are engaged by the Govt.

Mrs. Nibedita Mohanty (32) completed her Intermediate in Science during the year 2003 and nursing training on 2006 handle the responsibility of ANM of Gambharimunda Sub-Centre. Since 2008 she is delivering health care services such as: Counselling, ANC, PNC, Family Planning, Immunization, Sample Collection (Blood, Sputum etc) to the people reside within the catchment area of the Sub-Centre. In addition to this, she has also involved in mapping & handling the vaccine and cold chain management of the Gambharimunda deport since last 06 months and selected as one of the Master Trainer for ASHA-Refresher to train the ASHAs.

meration of the local population, Survey of Eligible Couples and maintenance of different records and registers. This apart she has also

She has undergone different technical training such as: TB, Leprosy, RNTCP, Immunization, Eye, NCD, VHSND, MAA, Family Planning etc. This apart she has participated in the training on Gender, Social Inclusion and Respectful Care (GIRC) in Family Planning Services and Parivar Swasthya Vaani(PSV) organised at the Banapur CHC. According to her most of the training focus on technical contents, but none of these focuses on client satisfaction.  The mobile-based platform (Parivar Swasthya Vaani) not only helps the clients but also the community level workers to improve their understanding on different family planning methods.   In addition to this, she has also shared that most of the community level workers are female and they feel easy to counsel the female partners and the female partners counselled their male counterpart regarding contraception. But now they share the PSV-number with the couples which not only reduce the number of queries but also increase the number of clients by 5%. The client scheduling through PSV helps to limit the number of cases during FDS and improve quality of sterilisation service.  Feedback channel also gave an opportunity to the clients to share their opinion about the service they availed in the facility.  This will motivate the client that they have the rights to share their opinion and it is valued.

In order to maximize its benefits, she has decided to educate her co-workers regarding the importance & uses of Parivar Swasthya Vaani. She will also use the existing platforms to educate the clients to improve their understanding on different FP-methods, to have informed choices, know their rights and entitlements and overall the quality of Family Planning Services.