They had a celebration in the district hospital in Chittorgarh, but I instead went to Chotisadri, the smaller town I've been trying to go to for a week. Chotisadri is where most of Prayas' health activities are centered, and they work with all villages in the Chotisadri "block". As soon as I got there, Govardanji, the head of the Chotisadri activities, picked me up on a motorcycle and drove me to the Community Health Center (see earlier post for organization of government clinics). There was about 100 women lined up with signs, and they started marching and chanting various health slogans in Hindi. Here's a picture:
We marched through the streets of Chotisadri for a while, continuing to chant. One of the nurses (who were all wearing white) gave me a hat, then giggled with all of her fellow nurses. We ended at a hindu dharamsala, in a large room where a bunch of other people were waiting. I think it ended up being over 300 people in the end, according to the woman sitting next to me. Almost all of them, except for some of the organizers, were women.(Sidenote: I totally see what the EPW article on Tamil Nadu public health was talking about. Gender is super tied into health here, and a lot of the respected community health figures (ASHA - Accredited Social Health Activist and ANM - Auxilary Nursing Midwife) are necessarily women. On the other hand, the Block Program Manager, who was also at this meeting, was a man, as was the ASHA coordinator for the district of Chittorgarh, as was the District Program Manager.
Also, I see what they were talking about when they said the predominant view of public health here is clinical. In the National Rural Health Mission website, the "public health standards" is a lay-out of clinical setups and what they expect of a clinic at each level. There are things on the NRHM website about vector control, disease surveillance, and other public health associated things, but nothing about sanitation or nutrition, which the article thinks should be a much bigger focus.) End sidenote.
Anyway, a bunch of people stood up to speak, but I could only vaguely understand what they were saying. I had to get up and introduce myself to over 300 women in broken hindi, which was hilarious and awkward. Then Govardanji went on a super long explanation of who I was and drew some sort of conclusion about "world" health, but the details were lost on me. At some point his wife mentioned me again, in connection with sitting, or asking people to get up for you, or something. The best understanding I could arrive at was that she made fun of me for constantly shifting because I'm american and not used to sitting on the floor for hours (all large meetings in India seem to be conducted on the floor), but still wouldn't ask for more comfortable seating. But I have NO idea if thats actually what she said, nor how that would at all related to world health day. I think I served as a source of fun and ridicule, which is fine, because at least I served some purpose!
After an hour or so they seemed to run out of speakers with things to say, so they kept asking for people to come up and say something. Women kept being pushed up reluctantly by their laughing friends to speak. Some of them talked about health, but others cracked jokes, and some just sang songs, which were potentially related to health, but I'm not sure. Apparently I was mentioned in the local newspaper covering the event!
Today I'm going to a monthly planning meeting of Prayas health workers in Chotisadri. I think this will be a meeting between government ASHA workers and Prayas workers, because I think as NRHM/ASHA work gets up and running in an area, Prayas pulls its health workers out. The government/NGO communication and collaboration here is remarkably tight, considering this type of meeting and the Prayas role in training of community health monitoring mentioned in an earlier post. In fact, I think each Village Health Council contains 1 NGO member that has been working in the area. A lot of the people I've met in the area now serving NRHM-associated government positions actually got their start at Prayas.
Tomorrow I believe I'm going to one of the Prayas "field sites" in the Chotisadri block, and staying 1 or 2 nights. Should be adventurous! Hopefully I figure out my water situation and don't get terribly sick (another American got severe diahrrea last week and got hospitalized overnight). I wish I had remembered to pack iodine tablets.
No comments:
Post a Comment