Asia-in-India: Sexual and Reproduction Workshop - Guwahati, Assam- January 28, 2011

Hi Everyone!

I have so much to tell all of you! These last couple of weeks have been extremely busy for me. I’ve been working on a Sexual and Reproductive Workshop for young adult girls and NGO’s. The workshop was held in Guwahati, Assam (a state located in the northeast of India). Karuna (head of the trafficking department at HRLN), Sukti and I created and implemented the 2 day workshop with the help of HRLN Guwahati Chapter. It took Karuna and I 50 hours on a train to get from Delhi to Assam. It usually wouldn’t take that long, but the train kept on stopping, and in the beginning there was an 8 hour delay. Needless to say, it was a loooong journey to Assam, but it was well worth it. :)

Waiting for the train to come.

40 hours later. . . STILL on the train. :/

The word "Sexual" was not allowed on the banner.

The first day of the workshop was for young adult girls between the ages of 18-22 years old. There over 90 participants!!! The purpose of the workshop was to teach the girls in the state of Assam about their rights. Specifically, sexual rights, reproductive rights, trafficking, and STI’s (including HIV/AIDS). Day 1 was held on a local college campus in Guwahati. Although the workshop was about sexual and reproductive rights, we were not allowed to put “Sexual” on the banner because it included the word “Sex”. That topic is still not socially acceptable to talk about in India: especially for young adult girls. Needless to say, in creating and implementing this workshop, Karuna, Sukti and I were doing something brand new. We were the first to have a workshop of this nature in Guwahati. We may have ruffled some feathers, but letting young adult girls know that they have sexual and reproductive rights is very important. They have the right to know about different diseases; they have the right to know that they have a right to health care; and they have the right to know there are governmental schemes that make sure they get help if and when they get pregnant: they need to know. The situation is Assam is devastating. Assam's maternal mortality rate (which means the amount of women that die during childbirth) is double that of India's. Why are these women dying? Well most are below poverty line, or have an infectious disease, no money to pay the hospital, no transportation to the hospital, etc. etc. All these factors contribute to hospitals turning these women away.

Quick side note to give you a glance of how some below poverty line women are treated by these hospitals (and they reluctantly accept this treatment because they do not know their rights). Okay, so, HRLN Delhi worked on a case regarding maternal mortality. In this case there were 2 women that were below poverty line. The first woman was shuffled from 4 different hospitals with a dead fetus for over five days until she finally received medical treatment: the hospital wouldn't treat her because of her status. During her next pregnancy, she suffered her 3^rd miscarriage and delivered a 7 month premature baby girl and died immediately after delivery. The second woman in the case was a young homeless who delivered under a tree in full public view in Delhi after repeatedly being denied treatment from public hospital. In this 2010 ground-breaking judgment, the Delhi High Court recognized maternal mortality as a human rights violation, and the right to reproductive health as a core component under Article 21's Right to Life in the Indian Constitution! This is why we had this Day 1 workshop. Young girls need to know that they do not have to keep quite and silent just because society expects that from them: they have rights!

Okay, back to the workshop --> I led the session on sexuality and reproduction, and STI’s, Sukti led the sexual and reproductive rights session and Karuna led the trafficking session. It surprised me how much the young adult girls did not know about their sexual and reproductive right prior to us teaching them. Prior to the first session in the workshop, the girls were given a 10 question questionnaire asking them, for example, to name 3 different sexually transmitted diseases, the definition of sex trafficking, whether or not child marriage is illegal, etc. The purpose of this questionnaire was for Karuna, Sukti and I to assess what the girls knew prior to the different sessions. We handed out the same questionnaire at the end of the day, and I was amazed that most of the girls were now able to answer every question correctly!

The girls were really paying attention! lol

Teaching my session.

Still teaching my session. . . the girls were really into it, and so was I!

Another pic of me teaching the session.

Sukti teaching her session.

Karuna teaching her session.

During my session regarding Sexually Transmitted Infections (in the States we call it STD's), after the lecture I had the girls create posters in groups regarding what I just taught them. Some topics included: prevention of STI's, symptoms of STI's etc. This was a fun activity for me to assess whether or not they understood what I was saying. I liked the poster-making process because the girls seemed as though they were enjoying creating the posters, AND they were being very creative.

A group creating their poster.

This poster said: "Prevention is better than cure." - They made that up on their own! :)

Close-Up of above poster- they drew me in the corner, it says "Asia Di" which means "Sister Asia".

Overall, the Day 1 workshop was a success. There was an amazing turn-out and the girls learned a lot while having tons of fun.

HRLN Guwahati Chapter gave me a gift for helping to organize Day 1 of the workshop. So sweet.

Over 90 participants!!!

Doing the introduction for Day 2.

The purpose of the second day of the workshop was to Build partnerships with local NGOs engaged in reproductive, sexual, anti-trafficking, and HIV/AIDs advocacy efforts with adolescents. The workshop focused on an information exchange between local NGOs as to ground conditions on sexual, reproductive health, and trafficking issues in the Northeastern States, and legal awareness of a rights-based approach to addressing sexual and reproductive rights violations.

Day 2 did not contain any actvitios because the participants were mainly NGO’s that were well-versed in the law already. The purpose of the session was to learn from the different NGO’s on what is happening in Assam regarding violations of reproductive and trafficking rights. The information will then be used to file different petitions in the courts.