Maternal Health and Rights - Campaigns
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Women leaders examine health expenditure: Use of RTI The Mahila Swasthya Adhikar Manch has been monitoring the use of Untied Funds (2008-2009) for their local PHCs and Sub-Centres in five districts, and has used the Right to Information (RTI) Act to obtain the exact details.
Along with this, the MSAM has also carried out a small survey of 412 rural women, mostly poor Dalit labourers, to assess how much poor families are spending on maternal and child care, between April to September 2008:
The MSAM recommends that committees designated to look into the Untied Funds at every level need to be formally constituted and have meetings to plan expenditure. The provisions for helping poor families must be publicized, and all expenses must be made public. Hospitals need to clearly display the list of services being provided and a telephone helpline in case of any harassment by the staff on duty.
This report is being presented by the MSAM leaders in each of the five districts to their district health officials in December 2009.
Complete Citizen Total Rights (Puri Nagrik Pura Haq) Based on suggestions from partners that the right to maternal health needed to be given much more visibility, a campaign was launched in March 2006 under the banner “Complete Citizens Total Rights” (Puri Nagrik Pura Haq) in order to generate greater political will for improving maternal health services in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign ran from March 6th (Celebration of Women Day) to May 28th, 2006 (International Day of Action on Women’s Health) and included events at both the district and state levels. This campaign was carried out by a coalition of partner organizations, women’s organizations and other allies and activists, including WAMA, Healthwatch Forum and MASVAW Networks, AIPWA, and Mahila Federation, and was anchored by SAHAYOG. The two main objectives of the campaign were:
Campaign activities were held in 15 districts and included collecting 35,000 signatures, pamphlets and poster dissemination, screenings of the film “Citizens without Rights”, meetings with Panchayats & elected representatives for greater political ownership of issue, lobbying with political actors to visit health centres, press conferences and media advocacy. At the state level in Lucknow, there were several demonstrations with visual representation of maternal deaths, as well as dialogue with the Director General (DG) of Family Welfare, the State Commission for Women (SCW), 45 legislators in the UP state Legislative Assembly, and a delegation to meet the Minister of Family Welfare and the Chief Secretary. The campaign received widespread media coverage, and a total of 90 articles were published about campaign activities. The campaign ended with the formation of a group of women leaders called Women’s Health Rights Forum, known in Hindi as Mahila Swasthya Adhikar Manch (MSAM).
Each year since 2004, SAHAYOG has brought together grassroots women leaders, partner NGO staff, government officials, health workers and the media on May 28th to mark the International Day of Action on Women’s Health and to provide a platform on which community women can share their experiences with seeking and receiving maternal health services, demand their rights, and make recommendations to policymakers about how to improve these services. The main issues of focus in the last 5 years have been:
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