10th International Women and Health Meeting ...
The IWHMs have been fostering debates on a wide variety of issues pertaining to women and health and have been instrumental in initiating the movement into a political force to ensure women’s health and empowerment as goals in their own right from the.
The IWHM has its roots in the global women’s movement, which marks nearly two and a half decades of the global feminist solidarity on issues that impinge on health and well being of women. It includes wide range of organizations, networks and grass-roots women’s groups. Over the years IWHM have been calling for resistance against politics and policies that are detrimental to women’s health. As per the title of the theme the 10th IWHM held in India was a significant epoch in the journey towards identifying and rallying against various national and international forces that have adverse impact women’s health. It sought to move away from the Eurocentric focus to a more global perspective towards building a movement for reiterating the holistic concept of health, to strengthen the claim for health care and health as justifiable right for all people. The 10th IWHM was also meant to provide a forum to discuss the many ways in which women’s well being is affected, the way women’s movement were resisting and negotiating with structures and institutions to build a humane world.
Sama in consonance with its commitment to the global women’s movement on health, took the responsibility of hosting the Secretariat for the 10th International Women and Health Meeting. The meeting which was held at New Delhi in September 2005 brought together about 850 participants from nearly 70 countries - attended the 10th IWHM Sama was a member of the 10th IWHM Organizing Committee. Sama was the coordinator of the Secretariat of 10th IWHM.
The five focal themes of the IWHM attempted to chart the various ways in which people’s right to life and livelihood are being violated on a continuing basis and how these in turn impinge on women’s ability and capacity to access health and health care facilities. The theme of the 10th IWHM fore grounded women’s health within the overarching context of global restructuring, environmental concerns, population policies and effect of militarization. The main focal themes discussed were:
Focal theme I: Public Health, Health Sector Reforms and Gender
The IWHM hoped to capture the nuances of changes in the health and health care scenario across the countries and see how they have affected people across gender, class, caste, race, disability, sexuality and ethnicity. Mobilization for better and alternative health care systems and the attempts to assert the right to health care were also discussed.
Focal theme II: Reproductive and Sexual Rights
The concept of reproductive rights and sexual rights has been the focus of much debate, within women’s movement and religious conservatives, yet in societies all over the world. Women’s reproduction and sexuality are controlled, either by denying contraception and abortion or by focusing exclusively on these. The 10th IWHM attempted to answer questions relating to the role of state in enabling the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights. It also discussed the notion of rights.
Focal theme III: The Politics and the Resurgence of Population Policies
Population policies both prenatal; anti-natal are premised on controlling the structure and growth of population, targeting women, the poor, the people of colour, indigenous people and people of other marginalized communities.
The 10th IWHM attempted to examine the changing language and agenda of donor agencies and countries and the manifestations of these agendas in the ‘population policies of recipient countries. It sought to critically examine and expose the population-environment and population-military nexus that views human population as destroying environment while obscuring the extraction of resources by state and corporate interests, and the demographic anxieties of below recipient level population growth countries and the adoption of selective immigration policies that control the growth of ethnic and refugee minorities.
Focal theme IV: Women’s Rights and Medical Technologies
The 10th IWHM attempted to revisit international ethical guidelines and regulations for testing new technologies. Focus on women-friendly practices in mainstream healthcare and examine why medical systems and technologies do not challenge inequalities. It stresses the need to organize to influence the direction of medical research and technology.
Focal theme V: Violence and Women’s Health
The 10th IWHM attempted to explore the nature and impact of development policies on women’s lives and livelihood. It also sought to focus on the growing militarism, war, communal and ethical conflicts that affect women’s health as well as reproductive and sexual rights.
