United show as MPs bat for women health forum

INDIA now has its first-ever intra-party parliamentarians' forum on women's health, which will advocate for policies on women's health, including sexual and reproductive health, that are often overlooked and underfunded, and receive insufficient attention in political and policy discussions.

- KAVITA BAJELI-DATT @New Delhi

The main aim of the forum, which has onboarded eight legislators from seven political parties, is to make women's health a policy priority, supported by research, advocacy and consensus.

Among the main agenda items of the forum, which will kick-start its operations during the winter session of the parliament, is to push for the inclusion of the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in India, in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).

Speaking with this paper, Dr. T. Sumathy, DMK MP from Chennai South, Tamil Nadu, said: "Women's health never gets priority inside or outside parliament. It has been treated as a secondary concern in our policy priorities, even though it underpins not just individual well-being but the health of our families, communities, and economy."