You have had an illustrious career in the healthcare space. Who have been your sources of inspiration, your role models?
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Jagruti Bhatia
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I have had role models who have inspired me both on a personal and professional front. On the personal front it has been my mother from whom I learnt the core values of integrity, truth, honesty, sacrifice, ‘a never say die’ spirit and ‘to have patience because sincerity and truth will always win in the end’. Professionally, I have always been an admirer of the Late Indira Gandhi whose ability to crusade even in difficult and adverse situations was admirable. I was also inspired by her in my early days to think that gender bias is all in the mind and if a woman can rule an entire country, we can do almost anything equally inspiring. Role models like Medha Patkar inspire me to get an innate strength to fight for our rights, for the welfare of people and environment which has finally led to me setting up an NGO – Foundation for Environment Conservation (FEC) which has an 80G clearance and works towards issues like environment conservation, organic farming and improving rural healthcare delivery through education and capacity building.
How have times changed for women healthcare professionals in India? What is your advice to women looking to carve a career in healthcare?
I think from the times where one would join healthcare as it was seen as more of a women’s profession of care and compassion, it has now moved to becoming a full fledged professionally-run industry. We have a sleuth of managers and hard core professionals to take care of all aspects across the industry value chain. I feel women should take advantage of these changing times and move forward to take on more challenging roles. The key advice I would give to women looking to carve out a career in healthcare is to have self confidence and not get deterred by people or circumstances that try to bring you down. There are certain times where women need to make choices to attain that delicate balance between managing the family needs and having a professional career but instead of giving up either one it is possible to find solutions where both can be managed. I have always experienced that whenever women are given this flexibility their outputs have been far better. People will always be more than ready to make adjustments if you have been good at your work so keep it up and ‘never give up before you try’…
| Straight from the heart |
| If there is wish list I could make on what women want few things would be:
Ingrain women support policies in the core DNA of organisations. Where few things like flexi timings, work from home during certain times required, time off during maternity and baby care not be seen as a favour done by organisations but as an incentive that ‘she really deserves’. Changing the mindset from making women as ‘that part of the population which constantly needs flexibility’ to making them as ‘partners in the professional growth ‘of organisations and work with them. It is not to indicate leniency rather more to do with looking at the ‘output and final outcomes’ expected than to do with how many hours of work one puts in. Provide a safe and sound environment to work. Removing the glass ceilings and decisions to be made on performance v/s time availability, flexibility etc. |
You are an ardent environmentalist and have spearheaded campaigns on environmental issues affecting the healthcare industry. What are the measures needed on this front by the industry and the government?
I am very passionate about the environment and being in an industry where ‘care and cure’ is the core value I feel this becomes my moral responsibility as well. ‘Greening the healthcare industry value chain’ requires making important choices for long term health benefits to patients and workers v/s short term monetary savings and this requires perseverance to bring about change. As far as the industry goes, one needs to carefully evaluate the carbon footprint of every choice we make; be it in building infrastructure or managing it during operations. Promoters may want to give a serious thought to using ‘Green Concepts’ to reduce artificial lighting and ventilation, using more environment friendly materials, those that have less carbon footprints while manufacturing during the construction phases. During operating and managing these facilities one can look at various environment friendly options like reduce use of PVC and similar materials, optimise biodegradable materials, judicious use of disposables, reduce mercury and heavy metal poisoning etc. We plan to put up all this information on our NGO website www.fec.org.in to help people get free access to build and manage environment friendly healthcare facilities.
The government in the role as ‘policy maker’ has done quite a bit and put up many laws and acts like the biomedical waste management handling rules, pollution control norms on incineration equipment, sewage and effluent treatment etc. These have helped us in creating environmentally conscious healthcare communities. But we would do better if we had stronger implementation strategies that ensure these laws are followed all over the country. The thought of introducing ‘Carbon Tax’ can be evaluated. I feel in rural areas where there is a lack of electricity and modern equipment we need to think differently and help them overcome these issues through effective capacity building. The government as a ‘provider’ needs to be much more conscious of keeping the environment in mind before passing large tenders. It would help if ‘environment friendly and reduced carbon footprints’ become one of the ‘technical criteria’ when the government in the role of a provider procures and consumes large materials. What will happen to the non biodegradable waste during large programs like immunisations etc. needs to be thought through. The government can thus play a big role both as policy makers and consumers in protecting the environment through this industry.
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