Pooja Parvati, Research Manager, OXFAM reiterated that the post 2015 development agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. She cautioned that partnerships without regulations and accountability are bound to fail.
Dr Sushma Dureja, Deputy Commissioner, Adolescent Health, MoHFW, said- "Unless we are able to implement the family planning programme (in terms of maternal and child health) we cannot achieve SDGs. Providing comprehensive safe abortions, doing away with sex selective abortions, dealing with reproductive tract infections (RTIs)/ sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are issues that still need to be addressed fully in terms of gender equality. A lot of advocacy is needed to involve men in family planning programmes. As of now male participation is very low--number of vasectomies is less than 1% of total number of sterilizations."
Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India lamented that,"There is no global or national political commitment on SRHR for women and this has always been a contentious issue. In MDGs, family planning and SRH were not there initially and but were included in the list B much later. But in SDGs they are nowhere. Merely having good programmes will not help unless they are implemented properly. There has to be a change in the mindset/ behaviour/ attitude of frontline healthcare workers, to achieve these goals. Unless a woman is able to access a range of services without taking permission from her husband, mother-in-law and other family members, we cannot claim that she has any SRH rights. The word 'sexual health' frightens people. So we NGOs have to not only find new creative and innovative advocacy methods to educate people and change mindsets, but also need to express ourselves differently.
Women must have more choices for contraception and the right to use what is best for them. Our neighbouring countries have 8-10 contraceptives to choose from. India has got 4 and only 1 is available to the majority of our women. There has to be a drastic expansion of contraception choices available to our women in the government programme."
Dr Aparajita Gogoi, Executive Director, Centre for Catalyzing Change-"Public pressure creates political will. Hence discourse around SDGs is important. We have to walk the long road of translating global and national commitments to something that would really benefit people on the ground and make SDGs relevant for people for whom they are actually meant. Once they are declared we will have to look for opportunities at national level as to how we can better engage people, CSOs and elected representatives leading to better implementation of programme.
SDGs are not framed on a rights based approach. But there is no reason why we cannot have this approach at national level. We should use proper terminology like adolescent health education instead of sex education. For any policy to be truly effective the framework must start from the acceptance that citizens must be engaged."
Shivasharanappa, Youth Member FPAI Bidar Branch-"Young people are missing in the debate around SRHR. We have to use a magnifying glass to find mention of youth voices in discussions around SDGs. Sexuality education should be imparted to youth."
Aarti Dhar, Senior Journalist-"When it comes to SRHR, media has been as conservative as the government and civil society. Media also needs to be trained--most of us are not aware of the nitty gritty and nuances of the SRHR issue. So media trainings must be organized. Focus should be on district level media and vernacular newspapers--they need to be updated and sensitized."
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