Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights

According to WHO –“ Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social

well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Mental health is
not only the absence of mental disorders or disabilities but more than it . In fact we
can say that mental health is the ability to balance feelings, desires, ambitions and
ideals in one’s daily living. It means the ability to face and accept the realities of
life (Bhatia ,1982). According to WHO mental health includes subjective
wellbeing, perceived self efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational
dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential,
among others. WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is
encompassed in the realization of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of
life, productive work and contribution to their community. Hence we can say that
physical health and mental health has a very close inferential relationship.

When we consider about women health, the reproductive health is a very important
and obvious part of it. Reproductive health acts as an integral component of
human development, enabling ‘continuity’ of human species through successful
‘reproductive processes’. The Reproductive health movement became an
international issue through two United Nations Conferences in 1990’s, the
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Cairo, and
United Nation’s fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing. Reproductive
health is associated with a wide range of issues including the sexual health of an
individual or of a community, the condition of the environment where the
reproduction takes place, and the collaborative, reciprocal relationship between
human and environment. Throughout the different phases of life the reproductive
health status plays a significant role in the health and wellbeing for the women.
Realizing the significance and consequences of reproductive health, the
Government of India has given special emphasis on reproductive health programs
and different policies especially for the adolescents and reproductive age group
population.

But the reproductive rights of a woman are still an ignored or not so focused area
for many countries especially for the developing countries. Reproductive right has
a keen relationship with women physical as well as mental health. Countries like
India where many girls used to get married at a very early age, even at the age of
12 to 15 years. Though Government of India has passed and implemented strict
law against child marriage but unfortunately these incidents used to happen at rural
or backward areas. When a girl got married at an early age the reproductive health
of that girl becomes compromised. These also lead to some unfortunate incident
including death. Not only this many women in our country are forced to have more
babies as a trial for getting a boy child. Here no one is interested to listen to the
women if she actually wants to give birth to any baby anymore or not. They are
just forced to conceive. Beside that now a day’s young girls and ladies are trapped
through money to become a biological mother in the name of surrogacy. All these
happenings indicated the need for reproductive right and the need of a strong law
for the women regarding reproductive health. Hence I feel to speak about this issue
in platform like this.

Dr. Shrabani Mukherjee (Chattopadhyay)

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Techno India University, Kolkata.