Light dawns when we believe!

I worked for a population control program that aimed at the reduction of population growth in one of the north eastern Indian states. Keeping the socio-cultural contexts of this particular geography in mind (where most of the basic health care needs are handled by the non-trained medical providers and that mostly women suffered intractable life situations) we initiated a training program. This training program included the identification and training of one non-medical provider and his women counterparts from each community to be trained on issues that also encouraged reproductive health.

Here are our lessons

• • Let us not shy away from reality. Call a spade a spade!

  • Be realistic and say, ‘only community matters!’

  • Make services available at the doorstep (where they are needed).

  • Involve women for taking care of health needs of the women.

  • Just by making a dent in population stabilisation, many more critical human problems such as malnutrition, hunger, poverty, unemployment and social and cultural exclusion are taken care of.

  • The health of women is key to improving the health of the community.

(A Couple Protection Year (CPY) is a global standard for protecting a couple. It consists of 100 condoms and 13 cycles of contraceptive pills.)