No Speedbreakers Allowed

Leading gynaecologist and current President of FOGSI Dr Duru Shah is campaigning for better healthcare facilities for the fair sex, finds out Jayata Sharma

As one walks into the clinic of Dr Duru Shah, a painting of MF Hussain cannot be missed. No wonder Dr Shah says that if not a doctor, she would have been a painter or an interior designer. But she was born to add value to the lives of women across the country. She wanted to be a doctor since she was six years old. Dr Shah is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist affiliated to Breach Candy Hospital, Jaslok Hospital and Sir Hurkisondas Hospital in Mumbai, in addition to running her private clinic 'Gynaecworld'.

Her areas of specialisation include infertility and reproductive endocrinology. Also, she has authoured and edited many medical books for gynaecologists and postgraduate medical students. Currently, Dr Shah is the President of Federation Of Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), and was the former President of the Mumbai Obstetric & Gynaecological Society (MOGS) from 2002-2003. Apart from her career as a gynaecologist, Dr Shah is deeply involved in promoting women's health.

Life At FOGSI

Dr Shah first got actively involved with FOGSI in 1994, when the then President of FOGSI, Dr Usha Krishna asked her to join as a Joint Secretary. This was her first step in FOGSI, and after that there has been no looking back for this extremely hardworking lady. For five years from 1994, Dr Shah took up the task of spreading awareness among women regarding perinatal deaths. She and her team collected data from 10,000 babies, out of which 5,000 were still born and 5,000 were born live and the latter were taken as controls for comparison. The study covered the causes of perinatal deaths and the steps through which such deaths can be avoided. "This was a big study and took a lot of time and effort. But at the end, the results were worth it. The data was released in 1998 and was quite informative for the doctors all over the country," says Dr Shah. She feels that doctors should always keep themselves abreast of all the latest studies. "We have done studies regarding the awareness of the Rh factor in the blood of pregnant women and have always kept doctors well informed about the latest findings," adds Dr Shah. To encourage people to work harder for the cause of women's healthcare, she has also initiated an incentive at FOGSI in the form of a prize for Best Community Service.

Safe Motherhood Programme — Suprabha Ganga Yatra

"This programme was actually the brainchild of my college friend, Dr Shirin Venkat. It was her idea to walk along the banks of the Ganga River and find out the situation of women healthcare there," says Dr Shah. "When I came to know about this, I advised her to have a tie-up with FOGSI and carry out the programme on a large scale. We simply worked as the back office for the entire Gangayatra," she adds. Now, why of all places, the banks of the Ganga? To this, Dr Shah replies that in India, the average rate of maternal deaths is 430 per 1,00,000. But in this particular belt, it is as high as 700-800, and this was the major point of concern. "The reason for such a high rate was not known, and we wanted to work towards discovering it."

The 2,400 kilometre walkathon was flagged off from Gangasagar on January 18, 2006 by a local minister.

The Samarop ceremony was flagged on May 5, 2006 in Delhi by Sushma Swaraj, Salman Khursheed and social activist Nafisa Ali.

The research found that doctors in the primary health centres in the Ganga belt were not equipped to handle emergency cases of pregnant women as they were not specialists. Also, specialists were available at a distance from the villages. Hence, by the time women reached the specialists, it would be too late to save their lives. Around 84 camps were held on the banks of Ganga.

Government Interest: (EmOC)

The Indian Government was also concerned about the growing maternal deaths in the Ganga belt. Under Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) programme, the Government sanctioned Rs 21 crore to FOGSI for training 2,000 Government doctors over the next five years. "Only training doctors was not enough, hence, in addition we have asked the Government to give women insurance cover for pregnancy so that they can afford a safe delivery," adds Dr Shah. It seems the Government was quite pleased with the efforts of FOGSI.

Dr Shah further adds, "Now, we as gynaecologists have been requested to accredit the clinics in the country. And to set the criteria for accreditation it will take some time. As far as the Youth Friendly Centres are concerned, the Government is very keen on promoting adolescent reproductive and sexual health (ARSH). "We have already trained 25 master trainers with the support of WHO. We even have collaboration with the Family Planning Association of India for youth awareness programmes," says Dr Shah. FOGSI was also involved in the training of 25 Government medical officers from various parts of Maharashtra on ARSH. FOGSI set up centres/camps to train MBBS doctors in that area regarding care during pregnancy. The McArthur Foundation has contributed USD 2,50,000 for this cause.

All About Kishori

The Kishori project was initiated in Dharavi by FOGSI five years ago. This venture was to focus on the girls in the slum and educate them about hygiene, contraception and reproduction. "When we started our research in Dharavi, there was so much to cover, and so I decided to have a tie-up with SNEHA (an NGO working for women in Dharavi) and had 1,600 girls enrolled with us," says Dr Shah. Adding, "SNEHA, Aganwadi workers, Sion Hospital, ICDS, UNICEF (with technical inputs) and Intergold (with finance) helped us a lot. In fact, we even received Rs 6 lakh as donation from Intergold to start the Kishori project." After providing the required awareness to the girls of Dharavi, FOGSI wanted to make them independent too. For this, classes of mehendi, make-up, tailoring etc were organised. "Our Kishori programme is a huge success and young girls from all other parts of Dharavi are contacting us to get enrolled," avers Dr Shah. Kishori also arranges annual functions and invites various celebrities to distribute certificates to the Kishori girls.

This Year's Scheme

Focus On Youth: Dr Shah has taken over as the president of FOGSI this January, and she has all her plans ready for her one-year tenure. When I asked her to rate the knowledge of today's youth about various health precautions they must take, she only frowned. This totally explains her agenda for this year. "This year I will concentrate on the youth of our country," asserts Dr Shah. The areas she would cover include: awareness about personal hygiene, nutrition, contraception, and STDs. This year's first Youth Friendly Centre is started at Welingkars College, Mumbai. Twice a week two FOGSI doctors will visit the centre and provide guidance to college students.

Training Programmes: Currently on the anvil are training postgraduate students (gynaecology) of various medical colleges. This training will take place at the college campuses. "FOGSI has a tie-up with ISRO for the airtime, CFL will sponsor this programme and we will require at least 125 satellite dishes to be set up," says Dr Shah. Once a month, CMEs will be arranged for the students and all this should be ready in the next six weeks.

"Already we have initiated 'Youth Friendly Programmes' in various schools and colleges in Maharashtra. We have the Growing Programme for school going girls, and the Let's Talk programme for the college students," avers Dr Shah.

Also, she feels there is need for more training by doctors today. And as a reason FOGSI has time and again come up with various training programmes. She along with her team has prepared three modules for educating the youth and with the help of 300 FOGSI doctors, plans to guide the youngsters in the Youth-Friendly Programme. "We have been conducting various awareness programmes from a long time now for women and society. But this year, as President of FOGSI, I will focus on continuing medical education in issues of the youth for the doctors as well," says Dr Shah. The target for this year is to conduct 100 workshops at 100 different places to educate the doctors about the problems of the youth.

FOGSI is handling training and awareness camps from last six years at school level, from four years at the college level and since the last couple of years at the postgraduation level. Also, it will cover the ways in which the doctors should handle the troubles of youngsters. "We are carrying out one-day workshops for doctors and students on these issues and cover the whole of India," says Dr Shah. The response to such workshops is tremendous, evident from the fact that FOGSI receives numerous queries regarding youth hygiene, contraception, safeguarding against STDs etc.

From The Printing Press

Dr Shah has furthermore initiated 'FOGSI Times', which is a tabloid containing many informative articles and write-ups for doctors and medical professionals. It is mailed free to all 20,000 members. Another brilliantly laid-out magazine called FOGSI Focus is printed every year under the guidance of the President. "This year we are out with two issues and three more are lined up. FOGSI gives out 20,000 copies of this magazine to various doctors in the whole of India free of cost."

This year, FOGSI has come out with two books, based on the queries they get. One book is for doctors, printed by Sandoz and the other for youth, printed by Glaxo. "The books for the doctors are given to them with no charge and all the members of FOGSI who attend the workshops receive it. This way, doctors get a copy of an informative digest right on their desk," avers Dr Shah. FOGSI members write the content.

Also, while she was the President of MOGS, she authored a book called 'The History of The Mumbai Obstetric and Gynaecological Society'. The book clubbed the history of Mumbai with the history of the Mumbai Obgyn Society.

Funding

Each of the workshops organised by FOGSI costs more than Rs 20,000. "We are fortunate to have partner pharma companies like Emcure, Glaxo, USV, Charak etc, who are willing to sponsor such events," she adds. The Kishori project in Dharavi was entirely sponsored by Intergold for the first three years. AstraZeneca, a pharma company, has promised to support FOGSI with Rs 50 lakh, out of which, Rs 37.5 lakh have already been donated. "People are willing to donate, only your motive should be of purely providing useful service to the society," says Dr Shah.

Apart from these ways of fund-raising, in January this year Dr Shah and her 1,000 supporters, mainly college students, participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon and raised money for Project Kishori.

Lights Camera Action

Dr Shah has tried promoting awareness in various ways, including making short films with celebrities. 'FOGSI Speaks' — a programme by which she created four one-minute messages on women's health for Doordarshan featuring celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan (covering female foeticide), Jaya Bachchan (about anaemia in women), Aishwarya Rai (about early detection of cancer), and with Ajay Devgan (on the spread of HIV from mother to child). The then Health Minister Sushma Swaraj at Agra released them on January 6, 2004. "Unfortunately, these messages were never aired due to certain difficulties," says Dr Shah. Also, FOGSI had a short film made to educate doctors on ways to deal with victims of rape. "Usually private doctors refuse to take such cases. We told them to at least gather as much evidence as possible when the victim approaches," she adds.

Past Trails

To this lady of great determination, life has always given chances to perform and make a difference to other people's lives. And you bet she has grabbed these opportunities with both hands. This reflects in all her past achievements too. Dr Shah was the Honorary Secretary of the Indian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ICOG), which is the academic wing of FOGSI, for five years. During her tenure, she realised that there is no super-speciality in India. "Moreover, we were lagging behind in our research work because of lacking funding for such projects," says she.

Keeping this in mind, she initiated a one-month fellowship programme for the members of FOGSI and their counterparts in the USA (dealing with infertility) and the UK (dealing with reproductive medicine). Through this programme, students from India would visit the universities abroad and learn about the recent advances in this field. The same would be reciprocated for students from abroad. "It was a very helpful step, but somehow it died out in some months and we could not continue the process," says a visibly sad Dr Shah. Also, while working at MOGS, Dr Shah realised only the President and the Secretary of the organisation had major roles to play. But they had lot of manpower, so she decided to utilise it. She formed two-man committees and chalked out plans for them including diverse activities like awareness programmes, workshops for doctors, educational camps etc. "I gave the committees specific targets and an agenda to work on. And I myself was amazed how much work was covered this way. I even credited them for their work by giving appropriate incentives and we also had a prize for the Best Committee," avers Dr Shah.

In Conclusion

There is no stopping this dedicated doctor. Her actions only convince us that if you are determined enough, the rest will surely fall into place. "Many of my colleagues keep telling me to rest and take time out for my personal interests. But, these very activities are my areas of interest. I enjoy my work too much to leave, so where does the question of retiring arise?"

To all the young gynaecologists of India, Dr Shah says, "Do honest practice, be ethical and always keep yourself updated with the latest." When asked what is the biggest achievement in her career, she answers with great satisfaction, "Being able to help other women, and the ability to be what I always aspired to be." On this note, I leave Dr Shah with the line of patients waiting for her.

jayata@expresshealthcaremgmt.com