COVID19 pandemic has behaved in a diverse way with various demographic groups. Earlier this year the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India issued guidance to states to ensure that women, children and adolescents continue to get all the healthcare services. In an event hosted by White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) and Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) in September this year, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare pointed out at the impact of Covid-19 has been felt by women, children and adolescents. However he affirmed instilling a behavioral change to help more women deliver in hospitals to entitlement for absolutely free services. While the Ministry has undertaken various initiatives to provide quality care throughout pregnancy and childbirth with interventions like LaQshya and midwifery care, academic institutions have a responsibility towards creating social awareness and upskilling professionals so as to provide an environment supportive of health and well-being.
In view of this, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and faculty from IIT Kharagpur will be offering a month-long free online course on ‘The COVID-19 Response in India: Impact on Women and Children’s Health and Wellbeing’ from December 1, 2020. This online course will examine the COVID-19 response in India focusing on the impact of both direct and indirect effects of the virus epidemic across the country on women and children’s health and wellbeing.
The course will explore how India has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic across different states and how existing and new systems have been utilized in the response. Divided into seven modules, learners will be provided with an overview of India’s health system and particularly the structures and systems for providing maternal and child health services and ensuring the wellbeing of women and young children. The course will delve into challenges identified in terms of health service access, impact of COVID on maternal and child health (MCH), broader societal impacts such as economic downturns, social structures, gender norms, and how women have been involved in and affected by the response and recovery efforts.
The course is aimed towards government officers, implementing partners, donors, early-to-mid career professionals in medical, lab science or social science, and graduate students in public health and clinical disciplines who are involved in and want to learn from the COVID-19 response in India and identify opportunities for improving the response in their own contexts (across India and beyond).
Upon successfully completing this course, course attendees will be able to:
- Describe the basic structure and function of India’s health system, and particularly ways in which MCH services are generally provided at different levels of the health system
- Examine the ways in which the COVID-19 response in India has impacted access to MCH services and health outcomes of women and children as well as broader societal impacts
- Understand the direct biological effects of COVID-19 infection on women and children
- Describe how women have been involved in the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, and ways in which they have been differentially affected along the way
- Analyze the COVID-19 response in their own context and adapt lessons learned from India’s experience
