Pandemic Setbacks Sexual And Reproductive Health – BW Businessworld
Tell us a little bit about your organization and the work you do? The Centre for Health Equity, Law and Policy (C-HELP) is an initiative of the Indian Law Society, Pune. It uses the law as a critical tool for advancing and improving health delivery, access and outcomes. At the Centre, we believe that law can be used to enable r…….
Tell us a little bit about your organization and the work you do?
The Centre for Health Equity, Law and Policy (C-HELP) is an initiative of the Indian Law Society, Pune. It uses the law as a critical tool for advancing and improving health delivery, access and outcomes. At the Centre, we believe that law can be used to enable rights-based change in relation to ‘health’ in all its dimensions. Our work is underscored by a commitment to the right to health and well-being for all, as enshrined in the Indian Constitution and India’s international obligations. Decades of experience in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has strengthened our belief in the vital importance of rights-based law and policy in effective health planning and delivery that is alive to the needs of the vulnerable and marginalised.
C-HELP undertakes research, advocacy, education, empowerment and literacy on the law, develops and disseminates knowledge products (such as https://www.c-help.org/right-to-health-illustrations), provides advisory services, and convenes forums to foster interdisciplinary thinking on health issues.
Who are the most vulnerable within Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in India?
Vulnerability in SRHR access and outcomes in India is a function of income, age, geographical locations, caste, sexual and gender orientation, occupation, disabilities and ethnicity. Adolescents, poor girls and women, those living in remote, hilly, or difficult terrains, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) persons, sex workers, and persons with disabilities face greater hurdles in accessing quality and safe sexual and reproductive health services, facilities, goods and information. Women in prisons, trafficked persons, and women and girls living in conflict areas are subjected to violence and coercion, putting their sexual and reproductive health at risk.
Laws act as barriers to SRHR, such as the criminalisation of consensual sex between adolescents and mandatory reporting of sexual offenses under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO). This discourages adolescents from seeking sexual and reproductive health information and services and puts them at greater risk of having unsafe sex, contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and having unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
Societal stigma, and harassment and insensitive treatment by healthcare professionals hinder transgender, intersex and other queer persons from accessing health services. They are also subjected to non-consensual and abusive medical procedures such as “conversion therapy”, forced medical examinations, and forced “corrective” surgeries. Sex workers face discrimination and humiliation that discourages them from accessing vital SRHR services. While the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956 does not prohibit sex work per se it criminalises aspects of sex work, such as solicitation and living on the earnings of such work, arming police with wide powers of detention and arrest. It casts sex work beyond the pale of legality and …….
