First Training Of Trainers Workshop On 8th- 12th February 2014, Mumbai

The first training of trainers workshop of the Integrating Gender in Medical Education project was conducted from 8th to 12th February, 2014 at YMCA, Mumbai Central. This project is in collaboration with CEHAT, United Nations Population Fund, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (Govt. of Maharashtra) and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. This first workshop, which is part of a 10-days training course for medical educators, included a total of 27 participants from six government medical colleges from Maharashtra (Nagpur, Aurangabad, Miraj, Dhule, Ambejogai and Kolhapur) and one private medical college (Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Navi Mumbai). The participants were deputed by their respective colleges from different departments, namely, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine, Psychiatry, Forensic Medicine, Preventive and Social Medicine, Surgery and Pathology.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Pravin Shingare, Director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Govt. of Maharashtra. He emphasized on the importance of such training so as to incorporate a gender perspective in medical teaching. The output of this three-year project would be put forth to the MUHS for integration in the medical curriculum of Maharashtra.

The project website www.gme-cehat.org developed in coordination with eSocialSciences was launched during the inaugural session. This website is envisaged as a resource repository for the project as well as an interactive space for its participants.

This training was conducted by Dr. Sundari Ravindran (Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Trivandrum), Renu Khanna (SAHAJ, Baroda), Dr. Suchitra Dalvie (Asia Safe Abortion Partnership), Padma Deosthali (CEHAT), Dr. Ramesh Awasthi (Mahila Sarvangin Utkarsha Mandal, Pune), Dr. Jagadeesh Reddy (Vaidehi Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore) and Dr. Amar Jesani (Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics). This project builds upon the experience of the Gender Mainstreaming in Medical Education project of the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, held in 2003, of which Dr. Sundari Ravindran was the course coordinator.

The five-day training included an introduction to concepts of sex and gender, the social construction of gender, patriarchy and intersectionality, gender as a social determinant of health, gender analysis in health, sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights including abortion as a gender and rights issue, ethics and rights in medicine, and masculinities. There was also a session on responding to gender reviews of medical textbooks and a session on participants’ presentation of key learnings for mainstreaming gender in undergraduate medical teaching. This training is to be followed by the second phase of five days which is to focus on the participants’ role as medical educators to develop strategies for incorporating the conceptual learnings into medical teaching. The trained participants are then expected to carry out college-level activities as well as regional workshops for medical teachers so as to build a human resource base of trained, gender sensitive medical educators and professionals in the state. For more information on the project, please visit: Gender in Medical Education Website