PROJECT
India: Health and Population Innovation (HPI) Fellowship Program

This fellowship program, originally implemented by the MacArthur Foundation, was transferred to the Population Council in 2004. The program's objective is to support individuals who wish to develop innovative approaches—including action and/or research initiatives and advocacy and communications strategies—in the areas of reproductive and sexual health and rights. Fellows have expertise in a range of disciplines, including the social sciences, medicine and health, management, law, and education. 

The program calls for submissions from interested individuals located anywhere in India. An advisory group makes the final selections, and the Council provides capacity-building and technical support. Projects last anywhere from 12 to 24 months.

To date, a total of 17 HPI fellows have been supported through the program—seven during the first year (2004), five during the second year (2005), and five during the third and final year of the program (2006).

The seven fellows supported in 2004 focused on wide-ranging issues, including:

• developing new strategies to enable seasonal migrants in Nashik, Maharashtra, to access health care;

• developing culturally sensitive modules to enhance the development of gender egalitarian norms among rural adolescents in Karnataka;

• implementing and evaluating a program intended to build community support for safe motherhood in rural Andhra Pradesh;

• documenting the lives of HIV-positive women and the obstacles they face in exercising their rights in Tamil Nadu;

• undertaking research on the informed consent experiences of women undergoing tubal ligation, intrauterine device insertion, and abortion in Chennai, Tamil Nadu;

• documenting the experience of sexual harassment in the workplace, with reference to the health sector in Kolkata, West Bengal; and

• understanding the role of husbands as supportive partners during pregnancy and childbirth in Mumbai.

The five fellows supported in 2005 have implemented a range of projects, including:

• developing communications materials that will enhance awareness of the reproductive rights of Muslim women;

• examining the impact of visual media on adolescents;

• describing links between injecting drug use and risky sexual practices among young females; and

• investigating youth sexual behavior in the face of changing forces, notably among college students on the one hand and youth employed in business process outsourcing services on the other.

The five fellows supported in 2006 have focused on a somewhat different set of projects:

• understanding the health and mental health needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals;
• examining trends in public spending on health care, notably primary health care related to maternal and child health care, and, more specifically, examining patterns of resource allocation on health care in two socioeconomically diverse districts in the state of Orissa;
• implementing training programs intended to develop alternate and positive models of masculinity among low-income, young, college-going men, especially with regard to violence against and abuse of women;
• promoting awareness of the active management of the third stage of labor among all providers of obstetric services in a rural community in Tamil Nadu; facilitating the translation of this awareness into practice; empowering local communities, especially women, to demand safe delivery, including skilled attendance at every birth and active management of the third stage of labor; and training community-based lay providers of health care about the active management of the third stage and the initial management of obstetric emergencies; and
• implementing and testing a training package on human sexuality development and gender issues among nursing students in Karnataka, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the skills and abilities of nursing students in their late adolescent period.

Capacity-building efforts have included workshops intended to hone and finalize proposals; develop study instruments (for those undertaking research); develop project updates; and analyze data. Significant efforts also have been undertaken to sharpen writing skills so that final reports are of high quality and can be peer-reviewed. To ensure that capacity building is ongoing, Council staff members meet and engage in electronic communication with the fellows on a regular basis.

Fellows have made significant progress on their projects. Four reports have been published as Council working papers; findings also have been disseminated at various meetings and workshops and through the media. Program-level influences also are evident—for example, in making facilities available to migrant communities, in committing to implementing improved consent procedures for clients, and in recognizing the gaps in implementing laws protecting women in the workplace from sexual harassment. In addition, fellows have taken advantage of the fellowship’s mandate to provide for professional development activities, including exposure to academic programs, visits to other organizations, and so forth.

Fellows' projects have highlighted the situation of underserved populations; demonstrated how services and interventions can be structured to be responsive to the social, cultural, and economic constraints faced by women and young people; and made efforts to bring evidence into practice. At the same time, the program has built stronger capacity among fellows in a variety of areas—notably research, advocacy and policy dialogue, dissemination, communication, networking, and the ability to develop and test new models.

Most importantly, the program has resulted in the development of a cadre of young people who will exercise leadership in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights in India.

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Population Council researchers

Shireen Jejeebhoy, Shveta Kalyanwala, K.G. Santhya

Donor

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

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