Role of Medical Student in accelerating Women’s Right

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Annu Bubna, a 22 years old, 7th Semester Medical Student of Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, India. She is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Advocacy of Women’s right has become very important in medicine. Teaching the Undergraduate Medical and Nursing students about women’s health issues and violence against women can help them understand what a female goes through when she is assaulted or when she is going through an abortion. She may be under great distress during and after an abortion. Different female deal with abortion differently. And if the medical students know about this, they can help her in copping up. She can be asked to go for counseling before and after the abortion and this can reduce the mental health issues she suffers from.

There should be sensitization of this topics in the medical schools. A Gynaecologist or any of the teacher can organise an activity about women’s right and about the various problem she goes through and enact the scenario with the help of students and ask about their views and would they do in this situation. They can be taught how to take proper history of the patients specially sexual history. This can led to early diagnosis of the condition and reduce mortality. In such activities, the students can share their perspective openly without the fear of being judged. There can be students who may have patriarchal view. So it is the duty of other students to make them realize that they are wrong and try to change their perspective.  

There is a lack of female role models for the students. There are only a few female doctors who made it big in spite of the patriarchal society. This give a negative impact to the students. Females are always associated as weak. People believe that she cannot handle huge work load or long duration operations or strenuous activity. It lies on the shoulder of few female doctors to change the perspective of everyone. Then only others will come forward and compete for positions of power. This can inspire medical students to participate in administrative work and in the future they will become great leaders with different perspective.

The Medical students can organise a monthly activity for different target audience. Activities which deal with rights of women, stigma and myths related to abortion and contraceptives. They can approach females of rural areas and teach them about various types of violence. They can tell them about various NGOs who help trauma victims and how to contact them. They can educate the people about good hygiene practice during menstruation. Maintaining good hygiene during menstruation can decrease the rates of Reproductive tract infection and infertility. They can set up camps regularly which spreads awareness about this issues.

The incorporation of women’s right start from medicine itself. Having access to safe abortion, contraceptives start from medicine. Taking care of her mental health start from medicine. A medical student who is a future health care provider can start the change from grassroot level, which is the need of the hour.

About the author

Annu Bubna is a 22 years old, 7th Semester Medical Student of Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. She has been a member of MSAI India since June, 2020. And is  also a member of World Youth Heart Federation – India.