Jabalpur
A seminar was organized at the Vijayashree Ayurveda College and Hospital campus under the joint aegis of Azim Premji University, Bhopal and Vijayashree Ayurveda College, Jabalpur. In this seminar, Mr. Manohar Agnani, senior professor of the Department of Public Health at Azim Premji University, Bhopal and retired from the Indian Administrative Service, delivered a lecture on ‘Challenges of gender inequality in health facilities and their solutions’.
This lecture was the first part of a series of lectures started by Azim Premji University, Bhopal. In the coming months, Azim Premji University, Bhopal will organize lectures on other such topics and issues at all the district headquarters of Madhya Pradesh.
Students of Ayurveda, Nursing and Education participated in this lecture held in the seminar hall of Vijayashree Ayurveda College. Mr. Manohar Agnani encouraged them to understand health and health services as socio-economic, political and technological aspects as future health care providers and said, “The basic problems of health cannot be understood by ignoring its social aspects. Women are often left behind in terms of access to health services, the reason for this is not only the lack of health services but our social structure is such that women’s health is not given priority”.
While positively reviewing the rapid policy reforms happening in the country in health services, Mr. Agnani told with statistics that – “Despite the fact that many types of health services are being made free for everyone, if the active participation of the society is also added to them, then these schemes will be able to achieve their objectives. Health care professionals will have the biggest role in this.
Mr. Agnani pointed out an interesting fact through statistics that in the case of child mortality, most of the deaths that occur in hospitals are of boys, while the number of girls dying at home is higher, which shows that even today most daughters have less access to health facilities. This is a matter of our social structure, which can be reduced by increasing our social awareness.
Therefore, we should keep in mind the social structure and social behaviour in all aspects related to health care. During the question-answer session with the students, Mr. Agnani encouraged them to look at all the myths and confusions prevalent in society from a scientific perspective and find solutions.
Apart from about 150 students, professors of the college also participated in this lecture. The vote of thanks was given by the founder of Vijaya Sri Ayurveda College, Mr. Rajesh Sthaphak. A comprehensive introduction about Azim Premji Foundation was given by Satyam Shrivastav of Azim Premji Foundation during the session.
