Final Report.CDR - National Institute of health and family welfare

Valedictory Session
Dr. Amita Pitre, UNFPA, in the valedictory remarks stated that she was very
happy to see such a programme being organized at NIHFW. An important
concern in the issues related to women and gender is about ethics. For
example, in medico legal cases, the women may not like to reveal her
identity and yet seek support from the health sector. She said that majority
of these issues have been reflected in all the presentations by the
participants. She extended her support in future for such programmes and
hoped that the participants would implement this training programme in their
own states.
Prof. Deoki Nandan, Director, NIHFW stressed the need of tackling the
issues of gender at local level. He stated that since most of the health
workers are females, it is a challenge to initiate behaviour change at social
and cultural level. He stated that in order to control maternal mortality in an
Indian context, we have to recognize what kind of facilities are being
provided at the health facility. Further, recognition of seriousness and delay
in arriving at a decision to avail of appropriate facility by the family members
is one of the major causes of maternal mortality. Strategies to train ASHAs
and ANMs to initiate changes in the society need to be worked out.
Quoting his own experiences while working on 'Community Based Maternal
and child health Nutrition project' at Agra, he mentioned the issues related to
'Mortality', 'Morbidity' and 'Malnutrition' which have a significant association
with fertility need to be addressed urgently. This corroborates with the focus
of NRHM towards reducing the IMR, TFR and MMR.
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