The President appreciated the Indian Association of Parliamentarians for Population & Development for its research analysis to strengthen the health and development sector in the country
President Droupadi Murmu underlined the critical need for ensuring inclusion of value-based education in the system, and ingraining gender equality issues as well as key life-saving critical behaviours in young minds.
She was talking to P. J. Kurien, Chairman of Indian Association of Parliamentarians for Population & Development (IAPPD) and former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, and Dr. Deepak Gupta, Prof. J. S. Yadav and Dr. Sudesh Nangia, who presented their two monographs to her. They were accompanied by Manmohan Sharma of IAPPD.
The President appreciated IAPPD for its research analysis to strengthen the health and development sector in the country, especially in the ongoing ‘Amrit-Kaal’. IAPPD works in the field of population stabilization and health and development programmes in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and various other ministries of the central and state governments, UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF and other multilateral UN agencies.
The first monograph titled ‘Social and Behaviour Change - SBC for SRHR, including FP: India on the Move’ emphasises that dialogue with and active participation of individuals is an essential element in communication for behaviour and social change.
Dr. Gupta said, “For behaviours to change on a large scale, harmful cultural values, societal norms and structural inequalities – dubbed as primary risk-factors - have to be taken into consideration.” He added, “Effective communication strategies have to be cognizant of and in tune with the policy and legislative environment and linked to the service delivery aspects, which must ensure reaching the vulnerable, hard-to-reach and socially-excluded communities”.
The monograph titled, ‘Gender Equality, Equity and Women Empowerment in India – Status, Challenges & Opportunities’ by Prof Sudesh Nangia concluded that a paradoxical scenario exists in India wherein women have been accorded the position of a deity and thus worshipped, yet at the same time subjected to various forms of maltreatment, discrimination and inequalities.