Women's health as empowerment in India
Khanna, R.
Newsletter 40: 34-35
1992
PMID: 12286347 Document Number: 329297
A grassroots nongovernmental organization, Social Action for Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India (SARTHI), operating in Panchmahals District in Gujarat, India, since 1980, organized a women's health program in 1988 as part of a larger effort to empower local women to improve their lives. SARTHI has broadened the definition of women's health to respond to the needs of the local women. In its first phase, the women's health program trained 20 local women in maternal and child health care. When the local women began confiding gynecological complaints to the women's health workers (WHWs), the WHWs responded by recommending traditional remedies and also by requesting specific information about gynecology. The second and third phases of the program, therefore, were to investigate and validate locally used traditional medicines and to train WHWs to be "barefoot" gynecologists and to take complete medical histories. WHWs also understand that they are agents of change and have a role in the effort to empower the local women. The training of the WHWs was specifically tailored for illiterate rural women. The training took place in stages and included technical health inputs and an equal emphasis on empowerment and leadership building. Training workshops were organized around the specific learning needs of each participant and included built-in reviews. Nothing was taken for granted, even the use of sterile gloves was practiced. Games and songs were incorporated into the learning process, and the core of the training took place through role playing. The trainers assumed the position of resource people, supplying new information as need dictated.