November 05, 2015

Expecting, lactating tribal mothers in Maharashtra to get cooked meal every day !!!

The Maharashtra government approved a revised scheme, named APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Yojna, for expecting and lactating women in the tribal areas of the state. The scheme aims to provide at least one full hot nutritious meal to every pregnant lady and lactating mother. 

The main highlights of the scheme: 

* Free hot cooked meal will take into consideration the beneficiary's food preference; food will be provided for six months, beginning from third trimester of pregnancy to three months after delivery; meal will include pulses, rice, fruits, vegetables and boiled eggs with occasional supply of milk

* Anganwadi workers, tribal women and local meal committees will implement the scheme.

* Women and Child Welfare Department will spend Rs 10 crore as stipend to anganwadi workers.

* Four-member meal committee will be constituted in every tribal village across 16 districts.

* Woman panchayat member will head the committee, along with two pregnant or lactating mothers and an anganwadi worker.

* The implementation of the yojna will ensure that the babies benefit during the lactation period, which will eventually help curb malnutrition among tribal children.


November 03, 2015

Maternity leave is the reason for poor basic education! Eh Seriously????


 Gujarat on National Education Policy: Draft report blames maternity leave for poor basic education

High number of women teachers and subsequent maternity leaves were listed among the 70-odd factors affecting elementary education in the draft report of the National Education Policy (NEP) prepared by Gujarat government. The draft report, prepared by state education department after a district-level consultation on school education, also suggested creating a reserve of teachers to combat the problem of frequent maternity leaves. It will be submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development soon. Please read the story here



September 23, 2015

Hindsight of Government of India - on MMR and IMR

India will miss its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing maternal mortality rate to 109 per 1,00,000 live births, according to National Health Profile-2015, which was released by Health Minister J P Nadda  on 22nd August. Please read the report here
 "From an estimated MMR (maternal mortality rate) level of 437 per 1,00,000 live births in 1990, India is required to reduce MMR to 109 per 1,00,000 births by 2015. At the historical pace of decrease, India tends to reach MMR of 140 per 1,00,000 live births by 2015, falling short by 31 points," the report said.
Please read the news here

September 03, 2015

Jharkhand Mahila Manch : state level meeting


NAMHHR member Prerana Bharti (Jharkhand) successfully organized a two day state level meeting of the Jharkhand Mahila Manch on the 26th and 27th of August 2015.  The objective of this meeting was to revive the women’s movement in Jharkhand and to brainstorm on strategies to empower the women of Jharkhand to once again take up cudgels against the obstacles that continued to enslave them.   The occasion saw stalwarts of the women’s movement such as Dr. Rose Ketketta, Prof. Malanch Ghosh and Anjali Bose address a large gathering of over 200 participants representing the 78 members who form part of the Jharkhand Mahila Manch.  In their motivational speeches these senior women activists spoke about problems related to gender equality, gender stereotyping and patriarchal structures that encouraged detrimental practices such as child marriage, witch-hunting and trafficking of women to flourish.   The meeting also saw in-depth discussions and brainstorming on strategies covering four thematic issues - violence against women, maternal health and nutrition, livelihoods and women’s participation in local governance.  The chief guests who graced the occasion were Smt. Sampat Meena, (DG of Police, CID) and Smt Mahua Manjhi, President of the Women’s Commission, Jharkhand.

ANM Convention: Reclaiming our skills,redefining our scope

""ANM is an important link in the public health system. She is the first stair in the staircase of the whole public health system" said Satyendar Jain, Honourable Health Minister, Delhi Government on 10th July on the occasion of the ANM Convention held in Talkatora stadium in New Delhi from the 10-12th July 2015. The first of its kind, this convention was attended by the 1500 ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse- Midwives) from different parts of the country to discuss their role and career in public health.

The Convention was organized by ANSWERS (Academy for Nursing Studies and Women’s Empowerment Research Studies),  in collaboration with Society of Midwives of India (SOMI), National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR) and Human Rights Law Network (HRLN). ANSWERS is a NAMHHR member also.
The Convention re-iterated the important role played by ANMs who are front-line public health personnel catering to the needs of the most vulnerable groups in rural, tribal and remote areas.  They are the single largest health care personnel in the public health system and over the last seven decades ANMs have worked to enhance public awareness about health and nutrition and played a vital role in implementing family planning and immunization programmes.

However the career of ANMs has not moved forward over the last 50 years and with the passage of time their growth opportunities have further shrunken.  Today, ANMs do not have an independent identity, management cadre or policy access to promote their career.  Hence the goal of the National Convention was to raise the ANMs’ awareness about their role in peripheral primary health care, strengthen their collective voice and enhance their professional accountability.

NAMHHR played a key role in organizing the ANM Convention and was particularly active with the media advocacy.  NAMHHR organized a press meet on 11th of June 2015 in the Press Club, Delhi which was attended by 21 media persons resulting in coverage in 3 local language newspapers. 

Please see a movie on the convention (Photographs) Here

August 22, 2015

Maternal Health in Tribal Communities of India: Advocacy Dialogue


Maternal Health in Tribal Communities of India: Advocacy Dialogue
organised by
National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights, India
YWCA, New Delhi
Aug 20, 2015 (Day 1)

In an initiative to deliberate upon and voice issues of maternal health of tribal communities through a human rights perspective, a host of Civil society groups, researchers, lawyers, experts and members of Parliament, senior officials from across 13-14 states of the nation congregated in New Delhi  on August 20, 2015 for  a two day  Advocacy dialogue  on maternal health issues of women in tribal areas. The advocacy dialogue was organized by the National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR).


 Setting the context for the Day 1, Convener of NAMHHR, Jashodhara Dasgupta outlined that the dialogue aimed to draw attention to the condition of the maternal health among tribal communities and present examples of sensitive service provisioning. Along with, it endeavoured to highlight the recommendations of the report of the high level committee (XaXa Committee, 2014) on the status of Tribal Communities in India and it aspired to build a consensus on further policy programme and budgetary recommendations towards addressing healthcare

Sessions on Day 1:

The sessions for the first day in the Advocacy dialogue were divided into five different segments comprising of discussions and sharing of experiences surrounding maternal health of tribal communities. The sessions in the first half of the day presented a situation analysis of the lived experiences of the tribal communities through differnet case studies and the latter half of the day focused upon issues of budget in maternal health and saw deliberations upon the XaXa Committee report.




 The first session for the day which focused upon issue of Availability, Accessibility and Acceptability of health services in tribal areas saw enriching discussions and sharing of studies from Rayagada- (Odisha); Jharkhand besides study on tribal healing practices. The session summed up the discussion that the health system and the health plans have failed to meet the health need expectations of the tribal communities and have had alienating experiences from the health system and there is a quotient of trust deficit in the health system from the community, with cultural, language barriers, remote distance of the communities and other factors cumulatively exacerbating the gaps.   
Experiences from the field also suggested that the tribal medicine though has been existing since times immemorial but has not been accepted in mainstream health systems and has not been documented and validated. Chair for the session Dr. Dinesh Baswal, Deputy Commissioner for Maternal Health, from the MoHFW, while acknowledging the issue of gap in health status of the tribal communities reiterated that it was a complex issue and a concern of all departments.  Co-Chair for the session Dr. Abhijit Das, member of the Advisory Group on Community Action of the NHM, reflected upon evidence building for the margins, as well the need for strengthening the compliance and accountability mechanisms.
A report by NAMHHR, titled Maternal Health in Tribal Communities: A Qualitative  Enquiry into Local Practices and Interactions   with the Health System in Rayagada District, Odisha was also released on the occasion.

The second session saw deliberations premised upon the theme of nutrition and other social determinants of health in tribal areas and highlighted through different experiences of tribal communities that the phasing of traditional sources of livelihood, malnutrition, poverty, migration and non recognition of tribal persons working in stone quarries as scheduled tribes, besides other factors have been detrimental for the health status of the tribal population.  The second session also provided reflections on the issue of vulnerability of the already marginalised tribal women, though the concerns of unnecessary hysterectomies of tribal and Dalit women in private hospitals in Chhattisgarh and the efforts of the state to control the  reproductive health rights of tribal women through sterlization and the government orders for the PVTGs to not adopt permanent family planning methods.

Chair for the session, Biraj Patnaik, a key champion of the Right to Food Writ Petition, proposed some suggestions. He elucidated that the institutional understanding for maternal health has been weak and amongst many issues, food security also need to addressed.  He outlined that some concerns like budget cuts need to be reflected.  Besides the phasing out of Antodhya scheme needs to be stopped and implementation of the Food Security Act needs to be ensured at pan India level as it is currently implemented only in 11 states. 


The third session titled effective approaches to health service delivery for tribal communities reflected upon the examples of advocacy by civil society groups for maternal health through collective initiatives like that of mobile text community reporting amongst tea tribes in Assam, involving a trained cadre of tribal health workers to reduce the health status gaps in Chhattisgarh and raising community voices in Gujarat.
 Parliamentarian T N Seema, who chaired the session deliberated that health status of the situation of the tribal population was same across the nation. While citing example of her home state, Kerala, she reflected that though Kerala is an outlier in the health and education but there are differentials within the state in health situation of the tribal relative to the state at large. She suggested upon the need for integration of different departments and ensured for taking up the issue of the health status of the tribal communities with fellow Parliamentarians and in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare. Co-Chair for the session Amar Jesani, Member of Mission Steering Group of the NHM, suggested for  the need for advocating health care as a right on lines similar to Right to education, right to Foos Security Act.

The fourth session of the day reflected upon the key concerns around Policy recommendations on budgets for maternal health in tribal communities and the emerging priorities surrounding the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP).



It was highlighted that the TSP was a very narrow approach and does not plan for targeted improvement of specific social sectors there was a need to strengthen state planning and the coordination, monitoring and evaluation function of Ministry of Tribal Affairs for the TSP.

 The fifth session for the day highlighted the Key Findings and Recommendations of high level XaXa Committee report. Prof. Usha Ramanathan, who has been a part of the committee and key note address outlined that the report reflected the socio-economic status of the tribal population and the context was the education, health and livelihood of the tribal population.


She said that while compiling the report and interacting with several tribal communities it discerned that, migration, mass displacement, malnutrition were some of the visible issues of the tribal population.  Discussant in the session Shiraz Bulasara suggested that there was a need to ensure the basic minimal facilities in the health institutions. Co-discussant Madhuri Krishnaswamy stressed upon creating nursing colleges and medical colleges for tribal communities near tribal district hospitals, so that the trained cadre of tribal health workers can be created to bridge different gaps in health status of the tribal communities. 
It was also suggested in the session that the XaXa Committee report did not apply to the North East Tribes and tribal communities from Ladakh and Lahaul &Spiti as these were very different and diverse contexts. 
The first day of the Advocacy Dialogue closed on a very positive note as Parliamentarian and Chair of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tribal Welfare, Fagan Singh Kulaste promised to take the health issue of tribal community at different platforms and voice concern on the issue vehemently in the Committee. 


Aug 21, 2015 (Day 2)

The two day Advocacy dialogue  on maternal health issues of women in tribal areas organized under the aegis of the National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR) in New Delhi, on its second day, saw the  development of further call to action and draft recommendations as culled out from the previous day discussions, presentations and deliberations.

Draft Recommendations and Call to Action

 Sana Contractor, representative of NAMHHR and Convener of NAMHHR, Jashodhara Dasgupta highlighted upon the draft recommendations of the National Alliance and elaborated that the recommendations were still in a draft stage and would be refined after more discussions with other stakeholders and sent to the MoHFW Committee on Tribal Health for consideration. They reflected that through the day one presentations of studies and discussions, it discerned that the exclusion and marginalisation of tribal communities was not limited to their geographic isolation only, other factors like poverty, hunger, migration, lack of identity, displacement, loss of traditional sources of livelihood etc. too were instrumental aggravating health gaps of the tribal communities. It was stressed that there is a need to address the deprivation among the tribal population.

They reflected that the common approach was that the tribal population was resistant to modern medicines, however through the studies and discussions it came forth that wherever the tribal population could access these health services they were not averse to it. It was also mooted that decentralization, flexibility in budget was required in monitoring and planning to address the local tribal needs.  The tribal blocks were underserved, lacked in staff and infrastructure and home deliveries were largely conducted amongst these communities. Malaria, sickle cell anemia were recognized to be rampant among the tribal communities silicosis and TB were identified as the occupational hazards the tribal communities faced. Lack of blood transfusion services, and emergency obstetric care were identified as the major areas of intervention for maternal health of tribal communities.

They further elaborated that it emerged through the discussions and presentation that the Tribal Sub Plan has not worked well and the emphasis has been on the demand side. The tribal health systems were quite sophisticated however there had been no recognition of the healing practices or the practitioners.

  Based on these observations the National Alliance has drafted recommendations broadly in four major areas. 

These included strengthening of the health system, within which some of the aspects include providing clean labour rooms, provision of emergency obstetric care, qualitative health services, employment of skilled workforce, and support for home deliveries with adequate transport and telecommunication services besides other aspects. The recommendations also highlighted for massive training of tribal communities to create a skilled health force and increase their ownership and also stressed upon the need for the sensitization of health service providers. Within the set of recommendations convergence of different departments was stressed for along with the need for disaggregated data tribal health. The draft recommendations stressed for a robust food security network to combat malnutrition and chronic hunger which has a manifestation on tribal maternal health status per se and tribal health status. It called for immediate universal implementation of maternal health benefits and the need to involve local millets, oils and other local available nutrition sources. The   set of draft recommendations called for study on healing tribal practices, midwifery practices, and recognition of the tribal practitioners, besides validation and documentation of the vast tribal health practices.



Abhay Bang-(Chair of the MoHFW Committee on Tribal Health) responses to the draft recommendations of the Alliance 
 Abhay Bang, Chair of the MoHFW Committee on Tribal Health who was present for the Advocacy dialogue appreciated the recommendations of the National Alliance and said that the Call for Action has provided rich inputs and these would be taken seriously by the CommitteeHe outlined that maternal health was ‘Like A Tiger in the Ecosystem’ which was indexical of the overall tribal heath system. He reflected that the issue of effect of alcoholism on tribal maternal health also needs to be elaborated upon. He also highlighted that the Panchayat Extension Scheduled Area (PESA) has not been implemented ideally. There were few concerns which need to deliberated, he said, like have we reduced maternal health to JSY; what should be the centre of decision making , designing and planning in tribal health, what role do tribal  Gram Sabhas have in planning when PESA is seen as a governing instrument etc.  Bang added that the committee report on the tribal health provides information on current status of tribal health in India and it provides a rich data, through ICMR, National Institution of Nutrition, Census and SRS and now the committee is further delving into report on the current status of health care of tribal population.


 Roadmap for 2nd generation recommendations for Maternal Health Programme, a publication of NAMHHR was also launched on the occasion.



Manoj Jhalani, Joint Secretary (Policy) Ministry of Health & Family Welfare outlined that certain questions remain pertinent as how do we ensure sensitivity of health service providers towards the tribal communities. He highlighted that the government has decided upon some steps to bridge the health gaps like ‘Time to Heath Care Approach’ in hilly and tribal areas at sub-centre with mid level service providers, amongst other steps. Jhalani elaborated that the NFHS will now be done every three years at district level also and this will help in providing disaggregated data.  
 

Parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh, chair delineated that there were disparities in the health status of the tribal population. He outlined that the fundamental problem starts with tribal administration and advocated for adoption of models like ITDA, and suggested that though it is not an universal solution but partnership with civil society groups in provision of health services in tribal areas can be looked out as options. 







 The second day of the Advocacy dialogue ended with a renewed energy among different stakeholders of the Alliance and on a promising note with Chair of the MoHFW Committee on Tribal Health, Abhay Bang promising to take the recommendations in the high level report and Parliamentarian Jai Ram Ramesh assuring to take up the aspects of tribal health in Parliamentary Standing Committee and other platforms.  


April 24, 2015

Haq Wapsi, Ghar Wapsi Nahi


On the 23rd& 24th of April, 2015, a Joint Dharna called Haq Wapsi, Ghar Wapsi Nahi, was organised at Jantar Mantar by Right to Food Campaign along with various national campaigns to protest against the Union Government’s policies which are seen as an attack on the rights of poor people.  The Dharna raised issues related to the following:  

Plight of Farmers:
·        Impact of the land acquisition ordinance, 2015 and Land grab for Corporates
·        The widespread crop damage and worsening situation of farmers,
The non-implementation of NFSA by Central and State Governments:
·        Converting the PDS into cash transfers and the move towards Direct Bank Transfers,
·        Reducing budgets for children's right to food,
·        Non implementation of Maternity entitlements,
·        Bringing commercial interests and contractors in the public provisioning of food instead of local communities.
Delays in MGNREGA:
·        Depressing demand through imposing conditionality in MGNREGA
·        Delayed payment of wages
Pensions:
·        Targeted and meager pensions
·        Pension Budget Cuts
Transparency and Accountability:                
·        Dilutions in the RTI Act
·        Lack of effective grievance redressal mechanisms
·        Non implementation of Whistleblowers Protection Act


Several hundred people from the states of Madhya Pradeesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu participated in the Dharna



April 23, 2015

"A Voice for Healthy Family" -NAMHHR and SOMI


NAMHHR was invited as special guest in the 2nd State Conference organised by Society of Midwives India (SOMI) West  Bengal Chapter   on  14th - 15th March 2015 in Kolkata. NAMHHR Member Devika Biswas attended this meeting.  She mentioned that NAMHHR was strongly commitment to using strong rights based strategies to promote maternal health rights of marginalized women through collection of evidence of rights violation and advocacy with stakeholders. She mentioned that NAMHHR was eager to establish a dialogue between the nurses/ANMs and obstetricians.  


NAMHHR recognized that ANMs and nurse-midwives were several human rights violations themselves including difficult working conditions,  lack of role-clarity & gendered systems of hierarchy in the overall health workforce. She stressed that there was a need to advocating for improvements, and a need of joint action to bring more 'rights-based approaches' to caring for women. 

A women-centred approach will need some reforms in childbirth practice, such as given below, and she persuade the SOMI group to join NAMHHR in trying to get these:
·         Ending labour-room violence and abuse, 
·         Birth companions for women, 
·         Choice of position for the labouring woman, 
·         Privacy during childbirth, 
·         Use of only Evidence-based practices (no need for pubic shaving, for routine enema, for routine episiotomy cuts, for oxytocin injections/IV drip etc) and so on

The meeting was attended by 400 participants and the technical sessions were related to maternal health and child health. 
https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif

March 09, 2015

Times' Social Impact Award for NAMHHR Member !!!















Hurray!!! NAMHHR is so proud to announce that the NAMHHR member Jan Sahas has received the Times of india's  Social Impact Award for the Garima Abhiyan Programme for eradication of manual scavenging in villages. 
They got this award in the advocacy and empowerment section.Please read the news  here
The eight-member Jury, looked for impactful, scalable work, especially in remote corners of the country or aimed at vulnerable social groups like the girl child, manual scavengers and leprosy patients.





February 28, 2015

Shocking!!! - One more case of Torch light sterilization in Azamgarh

आजमगढ़ में मोबाइल की रोशनी में हुआ नसबंदी का आपरेशन चार घंटे में 60 महिलाओं का किया आपरेशन महिलाओं की जिन्दगी से खेल रहा स्वास्थ्य विभाग ४.५ मिनट में हुआ एक की नसबंदी नसबंदी में लापरवाही से हो चुकी हैं कई मौतें आजमगढ़। महिलाओं की नसबंदी में हो चुकी मौतों से स्वास्थ्य विभाग कोई सबक नहीं ले रहा है। अभी कुछ माह पूर्व ही छत्तीसगढ़ विलासपुर जनपद के तखतपुर ब्लाक में दर्जनों महिलाएं नसबंदी कराने के बाद काल के गाल में समा गयीं। समुचित व्यवस्था देने का दावा करने वाला स्वास्थ्य विभाग शुक्रवार को आजमगढ़ जनपद के मार्टिनगंज में साढ़े चार घंटे में 60 महिलाओं का आपरेशन कर दिया। अस्पताल में रोशनी की व्यवस्था नही थी तो शाम होते ही चिकित्सकों ने मोबाइल की रोशनी में सर्जरी शुरु कर दी। जनपद के मार्टिनगंज ब्लाक में शुक्रवार को नसबंदी शिविर का आयोजन किया गया था। इसमें नसबंदी के लिए 60 महिलाओं का पंजीयन हुआ था। डा.एसपी तिवारी के नेतृत्व में चिकित्सकों की टीम अपराह्न 3.30 बजे मार्टिनगंज ब्लाक पर पहुंची उसके बाद आपरेशन शुरु हुआ जो रात करीब 8 बजे तक चला। अस्पताल में रोशनी की कोई व्यवस्था नहीं थी। शाम होते ही नसबंदी के लिए आयी महिलाओं पर जब टार्च व मोबाइल से रोशनी डाली गई तो चिकित्सक ने आपरेशन किया। स्वास्थ्य विभाग नसबंदी शिविर में समुचित व्यवस्था का ढिढोरा पीटता रहा है। जब मार्टिनगंज चिकित्सा प्रभारी डा.धनन्जय सिंह से बात हुई तो उन्होंने कहा कि मोबाइल वैक्सीन को ठंडा करने के लिए बिजली की व्यवस्था है। वर्तमान समय में यहां रोशनी नहीं है। बाद में ठीक करा दिया जायेगा। केंद्र सरकार की योजना राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण स्वास्थ्य योजना के तहत जनपद के वि•िान्न स्वास्थ्य केंद्रों को सभी सुविधाओं से युक्त किया गया है। इसके बावजूद महिलाओं की जिन्दगी चिकित्सक और व्यवस्थापक दाव पर लगा रहे हैं। साढेÞ चार घंटे में 60 आपरेशन मूलभूत सुविधाओं के अभाव में करना जोखिम भरा कदम है। सबसे अहम बात यह है कि अस्पताल में पर्याप्त मात्रा में बेड भी नहीं है। इस मेडिकल टीम को इस कदर जल्दी थी कि उसने एक नसबंदी में महज 4.5 मिनट ही लगाये। केंद्र सरकार के मानकों के अनुसार एक मेडिकल टीम एक दिन में महज 30 सर्जरी कर सकती है लेकिन यहां तो एक अकेले डाक्टर ने ही 60 महिलाओं की नसबंदी कर डाली । भ ले ही महिलाओं की जान जोखिम में पड़ी रही।

News Paper Reports : 
Hindusthan Times
Amar Ujala - Varanasi

February 17, 2015

No updated info on Maternal Health cases ???? Here it is!!!

Many of us are facing difficulties to know the status of the various petitions  related to the  maternal health and health rights which has been  is filed in different courts in all over India. The solution is here; Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and Lawyers Collective have created databases which will provide you updated informations about these cases. 



1. Claiming Dignity: Reproductive Rights & the Law 2nd Edition which includes most of the important decisions on maternal health. The publication is free online: http://www.hrln.org/hrln/reproductive-rights/laws-in-place/1467.html. This will have an updated version out in 2016. 

2.  Lawyers Collective has an online database of health rights cases, which includes many important maternal health decisions: http://www.globalhealthrights.org

We hope these links will be helpful for you get relevant updates on the cases and petitions.


February 04, 2015

What the Budget can do for Women???


NAMHHR convenor attended the sixth session of the ‘North Block Policy Charcha’ on 2nd Feb 2015 in New Delhi. The title of the meeting was 'What the Budget can do for Women'. There were two presentations by Jashodhara Dasgupta (SAHAYOG & NAMHHR) on the Reproductive Health and the Budget and Nisha Agarwal (Oxfam India) on the Domestic Violence and the Budget. The presentations were focused on how the budget should focus on the critical emerging issues on reproductive health in India with a focus on family planning and maternal mortality and resources required for the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA). The meeting was attended by V S Oberoi , Secretary, Ministry of  Women and Child Development, and  Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser Ministry of Finance,  and a number of CSOs and experts from the field of health and women rights. 

Please click here to find the presentation of Jashodhara Dasgupta. 

January 09, 2015

Camp Of Wrongs!! - Bilaspur Fact Finding Report




We all are shocked with the death of 13 women in a sterilisation camp of Bilaspur happened in this November. There has been no disclosure of the exact reason for the deaths even more than a month after the incident, and bereaved families have not been provided with any medical records, death certificates or even sterilisation certificates until now. 

As a National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR) have done a fact finding on Bilaspur deaths which is named "Camp Of Wrongs" immediately after this issue in collaboration with Sama Resource Group for Women and Health and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan. During the visit, the team was able to meet with the family members of the deceased women as well as those undergoing treatment. Interactions were carried out with healthcare providers and government officials as well as Meetings held with local organizations. Please Read the Report here: Camp of Wrongs!!!