Reproductive Health and Rights
Reproductive Health and Rights emerged as a key health concern after the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. The governments of the world agreed that health programming would henceforth aim at providing appropriate information and services to all individuals and couples to have their desired number of children and enable them to have safe and satisfying sexual relationships. It also promised that all women would be ensured safety in childbirth and all information and services required for their reproductive health care would also be available. The Government of India accepted the ICPD Program of Action promising to change its focus on population control and provide a broader range of services keeping women’s interests and choice at the centre. CHSJ’s work has been consistently promoting women’s health rights including their reproductive health and rights in its work.
Programme Implemented by CHSJ
2005 – 2010
2010 – 2015
1st Phase (2005 – 2010)
The NRHM was launched at the same time as the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH2) programme. The RCH programme was formulated to move away from the earlier target-oriented, population control focussed Family Planning programme and integrated a strong maternal health component. The maternal health component of RCH 2 drew attention to the need for Institutional Delivery and Emergency Obstetric Care moving away from the earlier approach of training Birth Attendants for safe delivery at home. CHSJ along with its network of partners on the ground in several NRHM high-focus states drew attention to the need to secure women’s reproductive rights during this process of change through these initiatives.
2nd Phase (2010 – 2015)
CHSJ’s focus remained on the fulfilment of women’s rights related to reproductive health. This meant that CHSJ in partnership with networks like the Healthwatch Forum and National Alliance on Maternal Health and Human rights kept monitoring the implementation of quality of care standards within the Family Planning programming while at the same time remaining vigilant about the adverse consequences of coercive population control policies in different states. As Institutional Delivery services were rolled out across the country CHSJ continued to review the fulfilment of maternal health related rights in the service delivery process and highlighted the gaps at various national and international platforms. This active monitoring function performed by CHSJ was appreciated by the Government of India (GoI) and the Director of CHSJ was asked to join various GoI platforms like the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA), the Health Steering Committee of the 12th Five Year Plan, National Monitoring Committee of the PCPNDT Act and so on.
3rd Phase (2015 – 2020)
During this phase, the emphasis of CHSJ’s work on Reproductive Health and Rights shifted to developing capacity among community level organisations to provide feedback to public health services that they received, and strengthening the state level networks as to amplify the grassroot voices. Building on its earlier work on Social Accountability CHSJ was able to introduce social accountability practices into Family Planning and Maternal Health programming in different districts and states. At the same time CHSJ continued to host the Reproductive Health Observatory