sama's blog

Sama Resource Group for Women and Health conducted a capacity building workshop on ‘Ethics and Regulation of Clinical Trials in India’ on the 8th and 9th of January (2016) in Mumbai. It was the fourth in a series of such workshops conducted by Sama in the last two years. The main objective of these workshops has been to build capacity of various stakeholders involved in clinical trials in India by foregrounding it in the protection of the rights of clinical trial participants.

Considering the growing concern on several issues pertaining to biomedical technologies, it becomes important to understand the linkages of these technologies with market, labour and ethics in the wake of neoliberalization within the health sector. Sama deliberated on exploring these issues through a two day consultation on “Bio(Medical Technologies): Understanding the issues of Ethics, Market and Labour”. The consultation was held on 29th and 30th of May 2015 at USI, New Delhi.

Sama’s publication ‘Specters of Malthus: A Study of Representation of Population in School Textbooks in India’ has recently been released. This endeavor, enriched and supported in many ways by the well-wishers of Sama, was, in fact, inspired by its long-term critical engagement with India’s population policies.

The lecture will focus on key controversies in population discourses and policies today. It will also reflect on the resurgenc eof neo-Malthusianism; the contestations over women's choices; the problematic linkages made between climate change, migration and conflict; communal stereotypes around fertility and reproduction; and the politics of dominant representations of youth and ageing.

Sama was invited to participate to a group meeting to discuss and provide feedback on the National Health Policy (NHP) from a perspective of women’s health including reproductive health and rights.

The link for the draft NHP.

Sama being an integral part of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) participated in the two day event (21st – 22nd January, 2015) on ‘Universal Access to Free Medicine and Free Diagnostics’ organized by JSA, Prayas and Oxfam India at India International Centre, Lodhi Road.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to respond what action it intended to take on the parliamentary standing committee’s report on irregularity in clinical trials of cervical cancer vaccine saying that government should be concerned about health of its people.

Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) organized 5th National Bioethics Conference in Bangalore. The event was co-hosted and organized by SOCHARA, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Society for Community Health Awareness, Research and Action, and The Forum for Medical Ethics Society (FMES), Mumbai.

Theme of 5th National Bioethics Conference:

The recent tragic deaths of the 13 women, all in their 20s or 30s and the critical condition of the 70 other women, following procedures of laparoscopic sterilisation in Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh, have flagged clear violations of ethical and quality norms in the health care system.

Book Title: “Reconfiguring Reproduction: Feminist Health Perspectives on Assisted Reproductive Technologies”
ISBN: 9789383074525
Edited By: Sarojini N and Vrinda Marwah
Authors: Betsy Hartmann, Sarah Sexton, Renate Klein, Sarojini N, Hedva Eyal, Marcy Darnovsky, Judy Norsigian, Shree Mulay, Madeline Boscoe, Jyotsna Agnihotri Gupta, Young-Gyung Paik, Vrinda Marwah, Deepa Venkatachalam, Preeti Nayak, Tarang Mahajan and Anjali Shenoi.
Published by: Sama and Zubaan