NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MATERNAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS NAMHHR E-Newsletter Issue-9 (April 2013- August 2013)

Maternal Mortality and Morbidity A Human Rights Issue

NFSB

The National Food Security Bill (NFSB), 2013 has received the assent of the President of India. It has now been published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section-1, as Act No. 20 of 2013. Read the full acthttp://namhhr.blogspot .in/p/resources.html

NAMHHR in collaboration with Commonhealth, SAMA, CEHAT, SAHAJ and SOCHARA, organised a two-day National Consultation on Maternal Health on August 12-13 in New Delhi. Dr. Syeda Hameed, Member,Planning Commission and Shri Keshav Desiraju, Secretary MoHFW attended the event. Read more at http://namhhr.blogspot.in/2013/08/national-consultation-on-maternal-health.html NAMHHR convener was invited by World Health Organization on July 10 as a resource person for Maternal Health and Human Rights in the WHO-SEARO Workshop on Mainstreaming Gender, Equity and Human Rights where the Barwani case study was presented.

Unconditional Maternity Benefit and Removal of Two-child norm NAMHHR joined forces with Right to Food Campaign and The Coalition against Two Child Norm & Coercive Population Policies (2CN-C) to take forward the issue of two child norm which adversely affected women from the marginalised community and had collected signatures against this from 30 eminent individuals and organizations. NAMHHR and allies shared this in a meeting with the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on April 16. This had a positive impact and the MoHFW issued a GO for removal of the two child norm conditionality from all its schemes with effect from May 8 2013 Government Order (No. Z.14018/1/2012 JSY) NAMHHRs convener was invited to share the key findings of the study on IGMSY scheme in a consultative meeting on Maternity Benefit organized by the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (on behalf of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Labour and Employment) on July 2. ( Read more at http://namhhr.blogspot.in/2013/08/engagement-with-ministry-of-women-and.html) NAMHHR met with the Chairperson of the NCPCR (National Commission for the Protection for Child Rights) on April 1 and shared concerns regarding the two child nom disqualification criteria from various schemes. (Read more at http://namhhr.blogspot.in/2013/04/advocating-with-chairperson-of-ncpcr-on.html) NAMHHR and the 2CN-C coalition issued a joint statement to the media with reference to the National Food Security Bill calling for government to remove the draconian two-child norm which was still being linked to the maternity benefits within National Food Security Bill. The issue received favourable media coverage with over seven online media picking it up apart from an article in Hindu.

Upcoming Events
NAMHHR member will participate in the 6th Asia Pacific Population Conference and CSO Forum Bangkok from September 12 -20 2013 The fourth NAMHHR capacity building workshop on Maternal Death Review will be organized from October 19 -21 in SEWA Rural, Jhagadia district, Gujarat.

NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MATERNAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS NAMHHR E-Newsletter Issue-9 (April 2013- August 2013)

Engagement with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)

NAMHHR has been engaging with the National Human Rights Commission on the UPR 2 follow-up process. Recommendations have been submitted to NHRC on maternal health, womens SRHR and health; these will be used in developing indicators to monitor Indias implementation of the UPR 2 recommendations that were received by the government in May 2012. The convener of NAMHHR has contributed to the NHRC journal an article titled Maternal Health: Protection and Promotion of Human Rights of Women.

Campaign
An Adivasi woman in Sukhpuri village was denied admission to the Menimata PHC and was forced to deliver in full public view outside a government hospital. Madhuri Krishnaswamy from the organisation JADS who is also a NAMHHR member, helped the woman immediately and JADS protested the denial of care.

Alliance Building Efforts

A press conference was organized by the Coalition against Two Child Norm & Coercive Population Policies (2CN-C) and NAMHHR on July 10 on coercive population policies and schemes, and its impact on the poorest of the poor. The media dialogue brought together a panel of health and human rights advocates and senior media persons. Read more at http://namhhr.blogspot.in/2013/08/is-indias-population-policies-any.html NAMHHR was invited by National Alliance on Social Security and on Labour Day (May 1) addressed a large gathering of street vendors; the focus was on the issue of unconditional maternity benefit for women in the unorganized sector. NAMHHR members attended and disseminated the policy brief on unconditional maternity entitlements to a diverse audience during a national conference on Womens Social Security and Rights in India organized by PWESCR on 6-7 May, in collaboration with UN-women, Heinrich Bll Foundation, ILO and UNSW. Responding to a call by Platform for Domestic Workers, NAMHHR Secretariat participated in the demonstrations organised by them on July 31. Read more at http://namhhr.blogspot.in/2013/08/domestic-workers-demand-for-better.html NAMHHR participated in the mid annual meet of the Medico Friends Circle on August 3-4 and presented a paper on Caste, Religion and Discrimination by the Public Health System. NAMHHR members attended a National Consultative meeting on Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Sex Workers (August 21 -22) organized by the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW). This resulted in two NAMHHR SC members being invited to be members of the core committee of AINSW NAMHHR convenor was invited by WGHR as a panellist to speak during the launch of the UPR-2 monitoring tool on August 22.

In response, NAMHHR members wrote to MOHFW and circulated an online petition which was also shared at the Women Deliver Conference held in May 2013 at Kaula Lumpur to garner support and protest against her arrest.

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NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MATERNAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS NAMHHR E-Newsletter Issue-9 (April 2013- August 2013)

NAMHHR Activities
NAMHHR will organize a General Body Meeting on November 29 30 in Delhi. NAMHHR SC Conference call meeting was organized on August 27. NAMHHR organized its 3rd National level capacity building on the technical aspects of Maternal Death Reviews on July 4-5 July in Delhi. NAMHHR Nutrition Subcommittee Conference call meeting was held on May 24.

New Resources on Maternal Health and Rights

Work Health and Rights, Background Note, Medico Friends Circle Bulletin, Vol. 352354, available at http://www.mfcindia.org/curissue.pdf) Continuum of Quality Care for Womens Reproductive Health in South Asia: This publication articulates WHRAP-South Asias rights based continuum of quality care framework for womens reproductive health. http://www.sahayogindia.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/06/Right-Based-Continuum-of-Quality-Care-for-WomensReproductive-Health-in-South-Asia.pdf Maternal Health is Womens Health : A PLOS Collection on Maternal Health Year 2 (2012-13) http://www.ploscollections.org/article/browse/issue/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fissue.pcol. v07.i20;jsessionid=642BC30299AE7DA0515B05B2CB723E63 Spree of Hysterectomies to make a Fast Buck: An article on the reproductive rights of women with disability by Divya Sreedharan and forcible hysterectomies. http://www.thehindu.com/features/the-yin-thing/the-silencedwombs/article4985813.ece?mstac=0 India: Sterilization by default: Wheres choice in family planning? An article based on the observations of a fixed day static sterilization camp in Khurda District Head Quarter Hospital (Odisha) http://southasia.oneworld.net/features/india-sterlisation-bydefault-where2019s-choice-in-family-planning#.UhryYdIycVh

Write to us at: namhhr.india@gmail.com

Visit us at: http://namhhr.blogspot.in