Haq Wapsi, Ghar Wapsi Nahi

On the 23^rd& 24^th 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

"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.