Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Hema Divakar, President, FOGSI, said, “The awareness on issues relating to women is high these days. However, at the same time, atrocities against women, be it domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, dowry harassment, gender-based discrimination, and violence have increased. The FOGSI, as a socially-conscious organization, intends to tackle these issues through long-term plans with the support of stakeholders.”
The Social Innovation CSR initiative is an extension of FOGSI’s ‘Innovation to Implementation’ theme for 2013 under which several path-breaking innovations aimed at improving the women’s healthcare services were successfully implemented. As part of the Social Innovation CSR initiative, a day-long conclave titled ‘Naari Samman’ was organized in Mumbai today. The conclave brought together policy-makers, legal fraternity, NGOs, key opinion leaders and bureaucrats to identify the way forward to create VSR for women.
“According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in India, a child goes missing every eight minutes. Almost 40% of them are never found and incidentally a majority of them are girls. Similarly, violence against women continues to remain high. A survey conducted by Trust Law reveals that all kinds of violence against women are on the rise. Why are we seeing this trend despite the nation making rapid economic progress? It is time that we created consensus in favour of long-term solutions to curb this menace,” Dr. Hema added.
There are several issues affecting women today and they can be broadly classified into social and criminal, but both are interlinked. Be it female feticide, child trafficking, dowry deaths, domestic violence, sexual violence, rape or gender-based discrimination and missing girls, all need the active support of the legal fraternity, policy-makers, and medical communities.
For instance, Haryana has the worst male-female ratio in India and it is below the national average (943 female against 1000 males). In Haryana, it is 879 females followed by Jammu & Kashmir (889 females); Uttar Pradesh (912 females) and Bihar (918 females) and Rajasthan (926 females) for every 1000 males. Several cases of domestic violence, especially in rural areas are going unreported. While in cities, including shanty towns, domestic violence is 40 per cent the same in rural areas is as high as 56 per cent. According to NCRB data, 244,270 cases of crime reported against women were reported in 2012. While 38,262 cases related to kidnapping and abduction of women / girls; 45,351 cases were related to assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty. A whopping 106,527 cases were on cruelty by husband or his relatives while there were 8,233 cases relating to dowry death.
A survey conducted by Oxfam India and Social & Rural Research Institute has revealed that 17 per cent of working women experienced sexual harassment. The maximum number of sexual harassment cases was reported among labourers (29 per cent); domestic helps (23 per cent) and small scale units (16 per cent), which reflect the vulnerability of the underprivileged sections of society. A report released by Ministry of Women & Child Development a few years ago has revealed that an estimated 150 million girls under the age of 18 years have been subjected to sexual harassment at home and at educational institutes.
“These are disturbing facts. Sex-selective abortion and infanticide have led to lopsided sex ratios in several North Indian states; crimes against women continue to rise and of late awareness has led to increase in the number of incidents. However, we need a paradigm shift to change the attitude of society towards the girl child and women,” Dr. Hema pointed out.
In an effort to monitor and sensitize communities, the FOGSI has set up an Anti-Violence Against Women Cell. Dr. Ashwini Bhalerao Gandhi, Convener / Coordinator of the Cell & Vice President, FOGSI, said, “Crimes are perpetrated against women from the womb to the tomb. The FOGSI is making concerted efforts to tackle them in a systematic manner by way of creating awareness and educating the people concerned. FOGSI has a strong network of obstetricians and gynaecologists across the country and we will leverage them to tackle these societal inconsistencies.”
In an effort to highlight the problems across all levels, the conclave deliberated extensively on successful campaigns, such as ‘Beti Bachao’, ‘Arth’ and ‘Bitiya’. These are in line with FOGSI’s Vision 2022, which is aimed at changing the way society and people perceive women in the next one decade in the country. “Through this platform, it has been our endeavour to convert our FOGSIinnovations into implementation. As a society we have already spent adequate time on the need for upholding the rights and dignity of women. What we now need is action that can deliver results. We hope that Naari Samman is the first stepping stone towards achieving a fair and equitable society, which is devoid of any bias against women,” said Dr. Mandakini Megh, Chief Convenor, Naari Samman & Past Vice President, FOGSI.
On the occasion, the Women’s Health Forum (WHF) – India was launched. The WHF will ensure that this mission is completed successfully.
The event was inaugurated by Chief guest– Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra; and Guest of Honor Ms. Shomita Biswas, IFS, Secretary, Maharashtra State Women’s Commission. It was attended by senior Health officials, FOGSI office-bearers, senior FOGSI members, IASOWA members and NGOs working in health care. The conclave ended with youth leaders presenting their action plan and the way forward for the Social Innovation on VSR for women.
About FOGSI
The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) is the professional organization representing practitioners of obstetrics and gynaecology in India. With 219 member societies and over 27000 individual members spread over the length and breadth of the country, FOGSI is probably one of the largest membership based organizations of specialized professionals. FOGSI came into formal existence in Madras on January 6, 1950 at the sixth All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, when the obstetric and gynaecological societies of Ahmedabad, Bengal, Bombay, Madras and Punjab resolved to form themselves into the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India.
