New Book : The Unheard Scream: Reproductive Health and Women's Lives in India

[Guest guest]

Panos Institute, India and Zubaan Publications (formerly Kali for

Women) have come out with a new publication, The Unheard Scream:

Reproductive Health and Women's Lives in India, containing the best

of long essays that emerged from three cycles of the Panos media

fellowship programme on reproductive health and rights of women in

India.

The fellowship programme explored the reproductive health and rights

scenario in India, and how India has fared since the 1995

International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) at

Cairo that brought about a " paradigm shift " in the way population is

conceptualized. The shift involved going beyond maternal health and

family planning to the broader framework of reproductive health and

rights.

This revelatory collection of essays by journalists explores a range

of issues concerning the social and economic roots of illnesses,

disease and death among women in India. The topics range from the

quinacrine sterilization scandal to the rip-off that is the assisted

reproduction industry, from the declining age of marriage among

Muslim girls in Malabar to the state of sterilisation camps in Uttar

Pradesh and sex-selective abortions in Punjab, from the legal rights

of HIV-infected women to lack of access to maternal and child health

services in remote hills and tribal districts of India.

The book contains essays by Rajashree Dasgupta (The Telegraph), Rupa

Chinai (Times of India), Sreelatha Menon (Indian Express),

K.P.M.Basheer (The Hindu), Dhirendra K. Jha (The Pioneer), Sandhya

Srinivasan (Issues in Medical Ethics), Geetanjali Gangoli (School of

Policy Studies, University of Bristol), Rupa Chinai, Lyla Bavadam

(Frontline), Annu Anand (Press Institute of India), T.K. Rajalakshmi

(Frontline), Swati Bhatacharjee (Ananda Bazar Patrika), Vasant

Bhosale (Pudahri Noe), Manisha Bhalla (Dainik Bhaskar).

The book's editor is Dr Mohan Rao who teaches at the Centre of Social

Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi. He is the author of Malthusian Arithmetic: From Population

Control to Reproductive Health (forthcoming) and has edited

Disinvesting in Health: The World Bank's Prescriptions for Health

(2000).

The book is priced at Rs. 400.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Urvashi Butalia/ Preeti Gill/ Jaya Bhattacharji

Zubaan

K-92, First Floor, Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi – 110016

INDIA

Tel: +91-11-26521008 and 26864497

Email: zubaanwbooks@...

Panos means 'torch' in Amharic and classical Greek, while a 'panas'

in Nepal is a lamp lit when people gather round to discuss important

issues. The word Panos symbolises the principle aims of the

organisation -- to illuminate and provide insights on a wide variety

of issues and their importance to the least privileged and most

marginalised sections of society, create a platform for informed

debate around such issues, and ensure that such perspectives reach

decision makers. Panos India is part of a family of Panos Institutes

worldwide.