On 2nd February Office of the Students’ Affair and Wellbeing and Counselling Centre organised a talk on “Her health, her right: Cervical Cancer Awareness and Women Wellbeing, A Conversation on Prevention and Screening” by Dr Tejasvi Hindalekar, In-Charge Mumbai branch, Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) and Ms Nisha Shetty, Counsellor, working at FPAI, Mumbai Branch at Prof. Armaity Desai Hall, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Students from different departments and staff attended the session.

The inaugural speech was delivered by Dr Vaishali Kolhe, Associate Dean, OSA, and Chairperson of the Wellbeing and Counselling Centre at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Dr Kolhe highlighted the importance of such cancer awareness programmes and also emphasised their significance at the institutional level.

After her speech, Dr Lata Das, Chairperson, Centre for Lifelong Learning, School of Social Work, and Member, Wellbeing and Counselling Centre, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, delivered the welcome speech. In her remarks, she highlighted the distinguished speaker's professional achievements.

Dr Tejasvi Hindalekar, in her presentation, discussed about what cancer is. She talked about the causal effect of cervical cancer, the symptoms and the methods of prevention. She also discussed HPV vaccination in detail, including the types of HPV vaccines and how they work. Along with that, Dr Hindalekar emphasised the importance of testing and screening in preventing cancer.

After her presentation, Ms Nisha Shetty focused on counselling and the client's consent before vaccination. She also shared her experiences working with different communities, the approach to take, and the factors a social worker should keep in mind when working with communities and individuals.

During the Question-and-Answer session, participants asked various questions, which the speakers answered. The interns of FPAI, Mumbai Branch, Swarnava and Sandhya gave the vote of thanks.