PHA-Exchange> SOUTH ASIA: Women Get Short Shrift in Health Priorities : ( WGNRRmedia coverage)

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From: "UNNIKRISHNAN PV (Dr)" <unnikru at yahoo.com>

Qurratul Ain Tahmina (Inter Press Service)


DHAKA, Jun 3 (IPS) -\
Women's health needs usually are at the lowest end of the priority ladder,
say a group of South Asian researchers and activists who discussed the issue
of women's health and its links to globalisation at a meeting here in late
May.

The meeting, organised by the regional network of the Rome-based Society for
International Development (SID), was held to mark the International Day of
Action for Women's Health.

Several experts pointed out that women have taken on a lot of economic and
other roles, but that this has not translated into better quality of lives -
or even basic health services -- for them.

''That women are increasingly entering the market is hardly a choice or
opportunity for them. In cities across South Asia, women are becoming the
breadwinners of the very poor families migrating from rural areas. They are
forced into taking up this added responsibility on top of their other
burdens.''

Yet, the increasing privatisation of the health sector that comes with
market reforms makes services out of bounds for the poor, especially the
women. The introduction of user fees in the government-run hospitals
decreases women's visits. Besides, the public-sector services are appalling.

Economist Rehman Sobhan told the SID meeting that in the last decade, the
growth of Bangladesh's labour force has been due to the number of women
going into the export-oriented garments sector. Eighty percent of some 180
million working in Bangladesh's garment industry are women.

''The women who are now the major support of our economy, face impossibly
exploitative working conditions. Now as the buyers of readymade garments put
one exporting country against another, wages are constantly under pressure.

Globalisation is shaping the contours of two societies in South Asian
countries - that of the narrow elites and of the majority population.

One reflection of this is a dualism in the health service. ''One is to be
bought by money, the other is what the vast majority gets in the public
sector - bad services and profound mismanagement''.

''We need to challenge the privatisation of the health system and
simultaneously demand expansion and democratisation of state-subsidised
better public health systems".

''Health is a right. The government must take responsibility for women's
health, and health care must become gender-sensitive.''

The women in the Dhaka slum may not understand the complex analysis, but
they feel the impact of these changes in their everyday lives.