health

Women and health has always been one of our key focus areas. Starting with action against the misuse of combination hormonal E.P. drugs, we have campaigned against sex determination and pre-selection, coercive population control policies and programmes, long acting hazardous contraceptives, new reproductive technologies, and more lately, unethical trials and promotion of HPV vaccines and the growing misuse of emergency contraceptives. We have struggled to make the State accountable, pressed for women’s right to information, demanded safer contraceptives and adequate health facilities, and redressal in cases of abuse or adverse effects. We have militated against government measures like the 2-child norm that penalise women for decisions over which they have no control. We have also critiqued legislations affecting women’s health including ethical guidelines in medical research, raised concerns about the power imbalances inherent in the research process, and attempted to build in safeguards for women participating in clinical trials.

Our activities, hence, ranged from exercising legal options, to lobbying, networking with groups in India and abroad, holding seminars, signature campaigns, exhibitions, performing street plays, and distributing leaflets, to storming meetings, marching in rallies, holding sit-ins and even posing as decoy patients! Through our publications and exhibitions, we have sought to expose the vested interests of the government, scientific establishment and the market, and enable women to make autonomous choices based on adequate information.