Cehat - Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes

Read on to know how the Muktha Centres in Bengaluru, initiated by NHM in partnership with CEHAT, became vital spaces of support for survivors of spousal violence - and what their closure means for access to care and justice. Published in Deccan Herald on 17 May 2026.

https://www.deccanherald.com/health/healthcare/where-do-survivors-of-spousal-violence-go-now-mukhta-centres-in-bengaluru-closed-after-funds-dry-up-4003981

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New opportunity at CEHAT!

CEHAT is looking for a mid-level interventionist to join our hospital-based response to violence against women. The role involves closely working with counselors and health systems to strengthen support and care.

Last date to apply: 10 May 2026
Head to https://www.cehat.org/joinUs for more details.

On 18th March, CEHAT hosted the dissemination seminar “Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls: Evidence from Service Records of Grassroots Organisations” in Mumbai, with support from AJWS.

This seminar marked the culmination of CEHAT's collaboration with eight grassroots organisations working with women and girls to strengthen their research capacities. We worked closely with frontline caseworkers, grassroots implementers, and programme teams to help them analyse their service data and build evidence to support stronger interventions and policy advocacy.

At the dissemination, grassroots researchers shared powerful experiential and data-driven insights from the field. The presentations highlighted the lived realities of survivors and the urgent need for gender-sensitive, grounded, and survivor-centred response strategies.

Each organisation developed a factsheet based on their data and contextual experiences (slide 2 to 9):

- Vishakha (Rajasthan) - Understanding Stigma in the Community

- Sahjani Shiksha Kendra (Uttar Pradesh) - Settlement (समझौता) in Cases of Violence Against Women

- Rajsamand Jan Vikas Sansthan (Rajasthan) - Role of Nari Adalat in Addressing Domestic Violence

- Jagori (Delhi) - Domestic Violence and its Impact on Women’s Health: Learnings from casework and counselling

- Equidiversity Foundation (West Bengal) - An Analytical Report on Domestic Violence Data

- AALI (Uttar Pradesh) - Life Cycle of Violence Against Women: Data from Service Records

- Nazariya Foundation (Delhi) - Support Needs of Q***r and Transpersons: Insights from Helpline Data

- ANANDI (Gujarat) - A Step Towards Gender-responsive Panchayats

To know more details about the Factsheet please visit - https://www.cehat.org/resource

We were joined by fellow researchers, civil society organisations, academicians, and women’s rights advocates, creating a space for meaningful dialogue, learning, and collective reflection.

CEHAT conducted a Taining of Trainers for a new batch of healthcare providers on Strengthening the Health System Response to Violence against Women under the Muktha programme in collaboration with National Health Mission (NHM) Karnataka. The training was conducted at Arogya Soudha, Bengaluru from 19th to 21st February 2026.

The 3 days were filled with discussions, activities, and experience sharing as the healthcare providers learned the why, what, and how of supporting survivors of violence through the health system.

These trained master trainers will soon cascade this learning across their hospitals and help institutionalise systems of care for survivors.

Our heartfelt tribute to Nirmala Sathe, who passed away on 27th February 2026.

We remember her for her unwavering feminist activism and her contribution to the women’s movement in Maharashtra for over five decades. Throughout her life, she guided and strengthened many organisations and collectives such as MASUM, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Shramik Sangathana, Forum Against Oppression of Women, the Women’s Centre, Maharashtra Stree Mukti Sampark Samiti, and Alochana.

She was also one of the early and steadfast supporters of CEHAT. She delivered the keynote at the inauguration of Dilaasa in April 2001 (bottom photo, slide 2), and consistently shared thoughtful insights from her work with survivors at the Women’s Centre, helping shape the vision of a public hospital-based crisis intervention model.

Her work and guidance remain part of our journey.

Photographs taken from MASUM Pune, Alochana Pune, and

The CEHAT team was at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Medico Friend Circle (MFC) in Raipur (20-22 February 2026), engaging with this year’s theme: Understanding and Addressing Systemic Violence in Healthcare.

Over three days, healthcare practitioners, educators, students, researchers, and activists came together to unpack how violence operates across the healthcare continuum, from structural conditions shaping health workers’ lives to discrimination and harm experienced by patients.

Amruta Bavadekar, Director, CEHAT, presented two papers:

🔹 Violence as Routine: Institutional Conditions Shaping Healthcare Workers in India (co-authored with Sangeeta Rege, Ajinkya Deshmukh, and Nancy Angeline)

🔹 Integrating Gender and Violence in Medical Education: A Pedagogical Intervention (co-authored with Ajinkya Deshmukh)

The team also contributed to developing case studies for the dialogical analysis sessions and facilitated small-group discussions examining the causes, forms, and lived experiences of violence in healthcare.

Grateful to be part of collective reflections on building ethical, equitable, and non-violent healthcare systems grounded in dignity and social justice. ✨

MedicalEducation

We heard from the doctors and medical educators who participated in the recent CME course on Integrating Gender in Medical Education organised by CEHAT and MGIMS, Sevagram from 6th to 8th February.

A huge thank you to our collaborators, faculty members, mentors, and most of all our participants for making the CME so memorable!

*Transforming Medical Education- Learning and Reflections*

From 6-8 February, CEHAT, Mumbai in collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical
Sciences (MGIMS) Sevagram successfully conducted a 3-day Continuing Medical Education (CME) workshop on “Integrating Gender in Medical Education” bringing together 22 medical educators from across India to explore gender-sensitive approaches to medical teaching and healthcare practice. The workshop was facilitated by Amruta Bavadekar, Director, CEHAT and Ajinkya Deshmukh, Senior Research Associate at CEHAT.

The interactive sessions were led by Renu Khanna- Co-founder, SAHAJ and Fellow, George Institute for Global Health; Aanchal Narang - Founder & Head Therapist, Another Light Counselling; Dr. Harshal Sathe - Associate Professor, MGIMS Sevagram; Dr. Priya Prabhu - Associate Professor, GMC Miraj; and Dr. Manisha Gohel - Professor & Head, Community Medicine, PSMC Karamsad. The participants explored how gender shapes the health systems and its response, medical practice and teaching conversations ranging from intersectionality to gender-based violence to inclusive healthcare and ethics culminating in educators designing gender-integrated lesson plans.

Key Highlights of the workshop
✅ Explored gender as a social determinant of health
✅ Understood unique health needs of LGBTQIA+ communities
✅ Examined gender-based violence & its health impacts
✅ Discussed family planning through an equity lens
✅ Integrated gender perspectives into AETCOM modules
✅ Developed gender-integrated lesson plans

Here’s to building more inclusive medical classrooms and a just health system.

This past week, CEHAT was at the What Works II Annual Programme Meeting 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey.

This year’s theme, “Holding Ground: Reclaiming Momentum for Gender Equality and VAWG Prevention” brings together researchers, implementers, funders, and advocates from across the globe to strengthen learning, solidarity, and action.

As a research partner in Project Udaan and a grantee partner under What Works II, we are proud to share initial findings from our project “Scaling up health system response to and prevention of domestic violence in primary healthcare settings of a district in Maharashtra, India: A cluster randomised trial.”

Sanjida Arora, the principal investigator from CEHAT, and , co-principal investigator and former director of CEHAT, participated in the meeting. We hope this project shall contribute to global knowledge-building and collective efforts to scale response.

Spaces like these remind us that prevention is collective work rooted in solidarity, evidence, and sustained commitment.

APM2026