Why G20 India could be a game-changer for midwives and nurse's leadership in global health
The first and longest serving health minister (from 1947 to 57), Rajkumari Amrit Kaur grants India unique bragging rights for the distinction of having the first female health minister worldwide. As members of the Women in Global Health (WGH) India chapter striving for greater representation and influence of women in health leadership, we take inspiration from this promising beginning. Although there have been occasional spikes in women's leadership, that has not been the case specifically for nurses and midwives in health policymaking, despite being celebrated as key primary health care providers of India. This has also not occurred frequently enough to be normalised or transform into nurses and midwives-led; and women-led development to have a significant impact, as has been vouched under the G20 tagline. The men-only-panels at the recent 76th World Health Assembly, the medical-men only panels at numerous platforms and the midwife-excluded Indian panels about midwifery at the 33rd International Confederation of Midwives' triennial congress, are glaring examples of this reality.
The upcoming G20 meeting in India presents a unique opportunity for the country to further cement its global health leadership record and pave the way internationally to advance the gender equality agenda. This could serve as a timely break in history, given the urgent need to address the inequalities that COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated globally and inequitably across the intersections of sex, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, to name a few. The consequences have been far reaching, particularly the impact of wage loss and the growing instances of unpaid domestic and care work which falls disproportionately on women serving as midwives and nurses.
In India, the gendered impact of the pandemic is starkly evident across the various stages of women's lives, including the toll it has taken on their health and rights (sexual, reproductive, and maternal). The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increase in domestic violence by 2.5 times, 17% lower rate of vaccination for COVID-19 for women, as compared to men and resulted in an estimated 2.4 million unintended pregnancies. Across global health, WGH data reveals that 75% of the global health and care workforce are women, mostly midwives and nurses, delivering the bulk of health programs on the ground, and yet they hold just one-quarter of the decision-making roles.