UNI Nepal Women’s Committee program on reproductive health and women’s rights
To mark the International Day of Action for Women’s reproductive and Sexual health, the UNI Nepal Women’s Committee organized a half-day interaction program on reproductive health and the rights of women with the participation of more than 60 participants from different unions including the tandems participating in the UNI Mentoring Program.
The interaction program was conducted through the active engagement of all the members of Women’s Committee and was organized with the objective of raising awareness amongst women on reproductive health and the rights associated with it.
UNI Nepal Vice president, Dr. Renuka Thapa, highlighted the issues of gender equality in Nepalese society and encouraged participants to protect their reproductive rights.
Senior gynecologist, Dr. Gehanath Baral, was invited as a speaker to provide insight on what reproductive health is and how can we can keep a healthy reproductive life. He provided orientation on the importance of cancer screening since the most occurring cancers amongst Nepalese women are uterus and breast cancers. Dr. Baral urged women to go to the hospital once a year for cancer screening as a preventive measure.
The second session of the program revolved around the issue of uterine prolapse, a painful condition which interferes with women’s everyday lives and in many cases affects their personal lives to the point of being isolated by their families and their husbands. The discussion also focused on how this type of situations constitute a reproductive as well as a human rights issue. The session was facilitated by an Amnesty International Labour group representative.
In the debate that followed the President of UNI Nepal Women, Dipa Bharadwaj, talked about the importance of the reproductive rights of women and presented two recommendations to the participants. The first one was to discuss with the unions the organization of a reproductive health camp once a year for women workers. The second was to organize the same type of awareness raising program with other women and men within their own union.
Women workers in the services sector can help educate and raise awareness on the importance of women’s’ health to both unions and society, particularly in societies like the Nepalese, where women are limited in the exercise of their reproductive and health rights.