Bakerwals fight their own battle By: Luv Puri Pir Panjal range, J&K
TEvery summer, the members of the Bakerwal community move out from Jammu plains to Kashmir valley as part of seasonal movement to Kashmir valley. And deaths along the Pir Panjal are common. The seasonal movement from the south of mighty Pir Panjal to the high altitude Kashmir valley in the north becomes necessary because the sheep they rear require a cooler environment and lush green meadows. For centuries the journey from the foothills of Pir Panjal to the north is full of travails.
Birth pangs of the alienated By: M Suchitra Palakkad, Kerala
Against the state average of 12 deaths per thousand births in Kerala, the infant mortality rate in Attapadi bloc is 66. Eighty per cent of the babies are under the normal weight of 2.5 kgs. The real picture could be much more terrible than the one the statistics reveal. The main reasons for the large incidence of maternal and infant deaths are malnourishment due to poverty, inefficiency of the health services provided by the government and the adivasi's inaccessibility to it.
Well womens clinics to treat sexual diseases By: K. Kannan Chandranagar, Bangalore
"Women work round the clock to care of others. They should also take care for their own health,'' says a brochure inviting women to come ``just for check-up'' at the Well Woman Clinic run by women for women in Chandranagar slum area in Bangalore. Of course, the examination, treatment and free counseling are offered in complete confidentiality. When women step into the clinic, they are diagnosed for all problems including possible HIV infection. No differentiation is done between women with high-risk behavior and those without. And through a network of out-reach educators, women are counseled for high-risk behavior and reproductive health in the adjoining slum areas as well
Reproductive health : Involve, not blame men By: Yogesh Vajpeyi Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
If the women were to be liberated from the constraints of the patriarchy, there was an equal need to liberate the men, too, from the patriarchal construct of masculinity. A village named "Itara" near Kanpur has witnessed a change in attitude of males towards reproductive health of their wives leading to substantial improvement in the health profile of the village. There have been several such experiments in other states also. This could be a lesson for others too.
