Ms Uma Mahadevan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary (Panchayat Raj), Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka made a virtual presentation on June 14 at the Oxford INDOX Symposium on ‘Women, Gender and Health in South Asia (An interdisciplinary exchange), based on experiences from the Grama Arogya programme. The abstract, titled ‘Communitization’ for Action: Access to Stigma-free NCD Services for Rural Women through Engagement with Decentralized Self-Governance Bodies – Experiences from Karnataka, India’ was authored by Ms Mallika Tharakan, Mr Raghavendra T, Ms Elizabeth Joy, Ms Priyanka Francis, Ms Uma Mahadevan and Mr Mohan HL.

Ms Uma Mahadevan focused on the challenges faced by rural women in accessing Non-Communicable Disease  (NCD) services and emphasized the important role of decentralized self-governance bodies in overcoming challenges in access to healthcare.