Bhavna Mehta
Dr. Bhavna Mehta is a Professor in Social Work at the Faculty of Social Work, Director, Office of Corporate Affairs, Dean - Officer on Special Duty, Faculty of Law, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She is a qualified Social Worker with almost thirty years of experience in the field of Social Work, Women’s Studies and Human Resource Management. Professor Mehta has worked extensively on women and children’s issues especially in the area of Violence, Health, Human rights, Empowerment, Child Rights, Gender and Development and Corporate Social Responsibilities.She is also a Coordinator of the Social Research Development Cell of the Faculty of Social Work and has undertaken number of research projects funded by Government, Voluntary Organisations, Industries and international funding organizations. As an outcome of her doctoral work, Dr Mehta has initiated a field action project to support Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse at the public hospital of the city in collaboration with the Voluntary organization working on women's rights. Professor Mehta is associated with many women, child rights groups at the local and national level. She has been invited by the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, University College Dublin Ireland, University of South Carolina, USA as a Visiting Faculty where in she has given number of public lectures on Gender Issues and Concerns of Indian Society, Evolution of Social Work/ Welfare in India, Corporate Social Responsibility in India and alike.Recently Dr. Mehta was the only Asian woman to have been invited by the Council of International Fellowship-Isreal under its Peace Program during the years 2017. Recently Prof Mehta was the only Asian among the invited Keynote speaker at the Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development organised by the International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Council on Social Welfare, International Federation of Social Workers and Irish Association of Social Workers held at Dublin, Ireland.Dr Mehta is a gender trainer who is widely travelled and has presented her work in many national and international forums.
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Papers by Bhavna Mehta
India with the presence of myriad customs, traditions and culture based on strong patriarchal, discriminatory values and practices are no exception, but a glaring example of a society having high incidences of domestic violence. While there are very few studies world over that have explored the health care system’s response to the issue of domestic violence, review of few of the Indian studies on the response of health care providers to domestic violence indicate that health care providers, though aware of the issue, hesitate to (rather do not ) respond to it in their work. The present paper based on authors’ doctoral work in five public hospitals of the state, will examine the response of public health care system to the issue of domestic violence in India. It will elucidate type of response health care providers give when they encounter women survivors of domestic violence at their work and reasons behind the type of response that they give. The paper will also highlight needs and preparedness of health care providers to respond to the issues of domestic violence at their work.
What is needed is concerted effort to create an environment; a social system and mental attitude that help people maintain their dignity in the face of assaults on their self esteem due to physical and mental decline. With assistance from family, community and government older people could lead useful and fulfilling lives. Therefore, in the changing scenario, the present research is important as it would throw some light on the issues and problems related to care of older person. This paper based on the primary research conducted in the city of Vaodara attempts to identify the intensity of the problems of older person in this area, level of stress experienced by using old age disability scale. It hopes that the various perspectives of older person would offer a better insight in designing social work intervention plans for the welfare, support and empowerment of the older population.
This issue has become a prominent topic of discussion in India in recent years. Society at large in general whereas politicians, media and state machineries in particular have placed a great focus on the issue due to continuously increasing trends of violence against women in last few years. According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, reported incidents of crime against women have increased by 6.4% during 2012, and every three minutes a crime is committed against women in the country.
From domestic abuse to rape as a weapon of war, violence against women is a gross violation of women’s human rights. It erodes women’s sense of being human and nullifies all the major principles; social work profession is committed to - human dignity, self worth and respect. Discussing about some of the most common forms of violence against women prevalent in India, the paper would analyze situation of violence against women in the context of country’s commitment to protect her citizen’s human rights especially women. The paper concludes with the social workers concern to address the issue based on human rights perspective.
An action research project was undertaken by Women’s Health Research and Advocacy Cell (WOHTRAC), Women’s Studies Research Center of the M. S. University of Baroda in collaboration with SAHAJ-Shishu Milap, a voluntary organization working with urban marginalized girls of Vadodara city. The author is a core team member of WOHTRAC and was part of the research designing and guiding team.
The study was carried out with older groups of adolescent girls and younger group of children in four and five ‘Bastis’ of the city respectively. The main aim of the project was to explore the children and adolescent girls’ perception of child sexual abuse. It also aimed to raise the awareness among the target group about the issue so that they would be able to avoid the encounter with the incident in future.
The project involved detailed preparation phase, exploration phase and follow up phase. Various qualitative participatory research techniques were used with both the target groups.
Outcomes of the project include research team’s enhanced understanding of the way adolescent girls and children perceive CSA and target groups’ increased awareness on it, formation of the city based ‘Forum Against Child Sexual Abuse Vadodara’ (FACSA) and preparation of a resource directory to help children in need.
The present paper based on doctoral work of the author would acquaint readers with the response of the health care delivery system to this critical issue in the state of Gujarat from the perspective of survivors of domestic violence seeking treatment at the public hospitals of the state. Based on the in depth case study of women survivors, the paper describes the health problems resulting from domestic violence that women present with, their perception of the quality of health care received and experiences with health care services and the health care providers while seeking care. Recognizing women’s experiences as ‘Good Experiences’ or ‘Bad Experiences’ with health care system, at the end the paper elucidates needs of survivors of domestic violence when they approach health care system
Social workers have been working with colleagues from other disciplines since the early days of the profession, yet there is no model to guide this interdisciplinary work.
This paper is an attempt to prepare such model based on authors’ experiences of collaborating with professionals from other disciplines to meet the common goal of achieving better and holistic health of women in Indian society. The author uses multidisciplinary theoretical literature, conceptual and research pieces from social work literature to support the development of such model.
First the current trends relevant to the interdisciplinary practice are noted to emphasize its importance. And then the paper shares the unique experiment that had been initiated at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda wherein an interdisciplinary team of professionals got together to work towards the development and promotion of rights perspective in gender, health and development.
The paper consolidates authors’ experiences as a core team member of this interdisciplinary program. After briefly enumerating the programs’ objectives and activities, the paper focuses mainly on the contributions social work knowledge and skills made to meet the agenda relevant to the profession.
At the end, the paper establishes the importance of interdisciplinary nature of social work practice and attempt to theorize the model based on lessons learned.
India with the presence of myriad customs, traditions and culture based on strong patriarchal, discriminatory values and practices are no exception, but a glaring example of a society having high incidences of domestic violence. While there are very few studies world over that have explored the health care system’s response to the issue of domestic violence, review of few of the Indian studies on the response of health care providers to domestic violence indicate that health care providers, though aware of the issue, hesitate to (rather do not ) respond to it in their work. The present paper based on authors’ doctoral work in five public hospitals of the state, will examine the response of public health care system to the issue of domestic violence in India. It will elucidate type of response health care providers give when they encounter women survivors of domestic violence at their work and reasons behind the type of response that they give. The paper will also highlight needs and preparedness of health care providers to respond to the issues of domestic violence at their work.
What is needed is concerted effort to create an environment; a social system and mental attitude that help people maintain their dignity in the face of assaults on their self esteem due to physical and mental decline. With assistance from family, community and government older people could lead useful and fulfilling lives. Therefore, in the changing scenario, the present research is important as it would throw some light on the issues and problems related to care of older person. This paper based on the primary research conducted in the city of Vaodara attempts to identify the intensity of the problems of older person in this area, level of stress experienced by using old age disability scale. It hopes that the various perspectives of older person would offer a better insight in designing social work intervention plans for the welfare, support and empowerment of the older population.
This issue has become a prominent topic of discussion in India in recent years. Society at large in general whereas politicians, media and state machineries in particular have placed a great focus on the issue due to continuously increasing trends of violence against women in last few years. According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, reported incidents of crime against women have increased by 6.4% during 2012, and every three minutes a crime is committed against women in the country.
From domestic abuse to rape as a weapon of war, violence against women is a gross violation of women’s human rights. It erodes women’s sense of being human and nullifies all the major principles; social work profession is committed to - human dignity, self worth and respect. Discussing about some of the most common forms of violence against women prevalent in India, the paper would analyze situation of violence against women in the context of country’s commitment to protect her citizen’s human rights especially women. The paper concludes with the social workers concern to address the issue based on human rights perspective.
An action research project was undertaken by Women’s Health Research and Advocacy Cell (WOHTRAC), Women’s Studies Research Center of the M. S. University of Baroda in collaboration with SAHAJ-Shishu Milap, a voluntary organization working with urban marginalized girls of Vadodara city. The author is a core team member of WOHTRAC and was part of the research designing and guiding team.
The study was carried out with older groups of adolescent girls and younger group of children in four and five ‘Bastis’ of the city respectively. The main aim of the project was to explore the children and adolescent girls’ perception of child sexual abuse. It also aimed to raise the awareness among the target group about the issue so that they would be able to avoid the encounter with the incident in future.
The project involved detailed preparation phase, exploration phase and follow up phase. Various qualitative participatory research techniques were used with both the target groups.
Outcomes of the project include research team’s enhanced understanding of the way adolescent girls and children perceive CSA and target groups’ increased awareness on it, formation of the city based ‘Forum Against Child Sexual Abuse Vadodara’ (FACSA) and preparation of a resource directory to help children in need.
The present paper based on doctoral work of the author would acquaint readers with the response of the health care delivery system to this critical issue in the state of Gujarat from the perspective of survivors of domestic violence seeking treatment at the public hospitals of the state. Based on the in depth case study of women survivors, the paper describes the health problems resulting from domestic violence that women present with, their perception of the quality of health care received and experiences with health care services and the health care providers while seeking care. Recognizing women’s experiences as ‘Good Experiences’ or ‘Bad Experiences’ with health care system, at the end the paper elucidates needs of survivors of domestic violence when they approach health care system
Social workers have been working with colleagues from other disciplines since the early days of the profession, yet there is no model to guide this interdisciplinary work.
This paper is an attempt to prepare such model based on authors’ experiences of collaborating with professionals from other disciplines to meet the common goal of achieving better and holistic health of women in Indian society. The author uses multidisciplinary theoretical literature, conceptual and research pieces from social work literature to support the development of such model.
First the current trends relevant to the interdisciplinary practice are noted to emphasize its importance. And then the paper shares the unique experiment that had been initiated at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda wherein an interdisciplinary team of professionals got together to work towards the development and promotion of rights perspective in gender, health and development.
The paper consolidates authors’ experiences as a core team member of this interdisciplinary program. After briefly enumerating the programs’ objectives and activities, the paper focuses mainly on the contributions social work knowledge and skills made to meet the agenda relevant to the profession.
At the end, the paper establishes the importance of interdisciplinary nature of social work practice and attempt to theorize the model based on lessons learned.