Gender and Health Training of Male Multipurpose Workers

Male health workers can link together men in need of reproductive health services, their partners, and health care providers (Piet-Pelon et al. 1999). Despite this potential role, identifying model programmes regarding male health workers is not without challenges. It is a common observation that male workers possess less information than their female counterparts. Furthermore, training and discussions with male workers reveal a range of concerns and apprehensions regarding sexuality, pregnancy, abortion and infertility (Raju & Leonard 2000). Lastly, there does not appear to be much experience in South Asia in training male health care providers on issues of sexuality and health, especially from a gender and rights perspective (Hawkes 2000). Reflecting on this gap, this paper describes the experiences of the Women Centred Health Project (WCHP) in training male health workers ¹ in the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on gender, sexuality and health.