Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights

Reproductive Health has been the foundation of Action India’s Women’s Program. In 1984, with the guidance of doctors, we trained twenty community-based women to develop a holistic and feminist approach to health. The program, in its widest context, works to change the status of women through gender consciousness, nutrition, and fertility awareness. Our community health workers (CHWs) continue their work in numerous communities surrounding Delhi. As they learn to put their knowledge to practice, they pass on their learning to other women—a process that works through a multiplier effect.

Women eat last and least
Have no control over assets and resources
Work eighteen hours a day without a holiday;
Bear and rear children.

Demystifying knowledge and dissemination of information enable ordinary women to take extraordinary actions to gain control over their body.

Looking Through A Gender Lens – Continuum of Care to Ensure Safe Birthing-Access to Public Health Services: Enhancing women’s access to health services, working with a focus on pregnant women and children under 6 years, we have addressed the causes of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). More importantly, Action India has evolved a clear gender perspective to understand the endemic causes of India’s high MMR/IMR rooted in a caste-based society dominated by the powerful elite classes.
Action India’s approach to the problem starts at the bottom of the ladder. The direct beneficiary is the pregnant woman who is subjugated in her own family, by her family members, community members, and service providers so as to address the problem as a whole to validate the community empowerment model.