I had the good fortune of being able to spend a good half hour or forty five minutes with two doctors who owned private clinics in the slums who were giving medicines at a very low cost. They spoke to me at length about the nature of the slum-dwellers. I gleaned a lot of information about the women here. They told me that almost all the women work, and 80% are anaemic. Despite being the ones who cook they are often fed leftovers and hence are very weak. Their children are often born with low-birth weight and have a high mortality rate. Most women have 5-7 children each and the families are unplanned. They do not realise until space runs out in their homes that reproducing at this rate is not healthy. While I myself saw the great care the women took in the cleaning of their homes, utensils etc., and how the slums are generally clean (No lack of good toilets, no open drains) it became apparent that they had low personal hygiene and that they were therefore victims to infections. Doctors complained that the people here did not like to take medicines and bought medicines but usually forgot to consume them.
I also spoke to some social workers who worked in Gramshree a sister concern of Manav Sadhna. She told me that most women in the area were ignorant of health issues and bore the pain, as part of being a woman. She spoke at length about the many problems of these women she encountered as a social worker. From the general consensus I could see women had a lot of issues with reproduction, sex and nutrition. I also understood a great deal of what the NGO does here, to educate these women, street plays, charts, small booklets/brochures, teaching etc. as well as providing food for to-be mothers and schooling for children at the Anganwadis.
No comments:
Post a Comment