Building perspectives of community leaders on concepts of vulnerability and gender for an increased demand for tuberculosis services: Experiences from vulnerable populations in India
Abstracts
Authors: S. MAJUMDER, A. SINHA, K. KUMARASWAMY, J. FRANCIS MUNJATTU, R. RANJAN, P. KUMAR, R. DASARI, P. DAS, A. GOSWAMI, R. SWAMICKAN, R. BEGUM, KHPT, Tuberculosis, Bangalore, India, TB ALERT India, Tuberculosis, Hyderabad, India, USAID/INDIA, USAID/India, Health Office, Hyderabad, India, USAID/India, Health office, USAID/India, New Delhi, India
Type of presentation: Oral/Poster/Other: Oral abstract presentation
Track/Category: Systems for training and programmatic capacity building
Background and challenges to implementation: National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis (2017-25), emphasizes active participation of the community to contribute to end TB. Community leaders need deeper understanding of social systems to make them informed about TB vulnerabilities and ways to deal with it. USAID-supported Breaking the Barriers project, is being implemented among mining, migrants, industrial, tribal, and urban vulnerable communities across Indian states – Assam, Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka to ensure community leaders’ effective role in accelerating TB elimination efforts. Intervention or response: We conducted perspective-building training to the community leaders’, to understand on the complexities within individuals and socially vulnerable groups. In effect, enabling them to engage with and involve communities more effectively for TB response. We adopted a blended participatory learning approach for 4-5 days, through role-play, group activities, and demonstrations to encourage introspection and discussions. Together with sessions on the basics of TB, these workshops covered concepts like deprivation, discrimination, vulnerability, gender, inequities, health rights, and disempowerment. The participants included the project staff and community leaders of project geographies.