In collaboration with Maastricht University, Institute of public health organized an exposure visit to India for the students pursing Honours International Health at Maastricht University. The second batch of Maastricht students completed this exposure visit in the month of July and August, this year. The Institute of Public Health, planned, designed, coordinated and executed the entire program to suite the learning needs of the students.
A batch of 13 students, studying Honours International Health (Maastricht University) participated in the program and received an orientation to the health system of our county from a socio-cultural perspective. The program was designed on the principals of problem based learning. The students after receiving a brief orientation, visited public and private health facilities in Tumkur, Gudalur, KG Halli and other parts of Bangalore. A special feature of the program was the family visit that were organised in Tumkur and KG Halli. This visit helped the students interacted with selected families to understand their perception and opinion on health care provided to them in the area. These semi structured interview allowed them to get a general feel of the socio-economic status and religious and cultural aspects of these families and its effected their life in general and health in particular. They also visited an NGO working in the area of women’s right and gender equity, gave them an insight into the gender issues of rural women in India and its effects on health. The visit to Gudalur provided an opportunity for the students to interact with the adivasi’s of the region and get a sneak peek into their lives, displacement from their natural habitat and its effect on their health and economic status and various other issues surrounding it.
Each visit was followed by a debriefing session where questions and queries from students were discussed in detail. The exposure visit ended with an assignment by the students on their learning from the field visits about the health care system of the country, the socio economic cultural and religious diversity of the country and the interaction between them.
The students in their feedback express that the exposure visit not only contributed to their professional knowledge but also moved them at a personal level. Given below is some of the feedback by students:
- “Visiting the field was a very good experience for me to really understand how things are working in this country. When you just hear the theory at home you would never get this experience and you would never understand how this really works.”
- “It was a great experience and I have learned a lot.”
- “I think the experience and exposures are the most memorable things of the programme, because these are the things we wouldn’t be able to do back home. I especially liked the family visits, since they left a big impression and taught us a lot about the culture.”
- “This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. In social, psychological and professional aspect. My compliments to the IPH-staff for putting this program together. To my opinion every part of the Indian health system was showed.”
- “I found it a very valuable experience for my personal development and professional development in general.”
- “From my point of view, our visit to India was a very valuable experience. We were enabled to see so many things that we most probably would not have seen if we had come to India as ‘normal’ tourists. I really enjoyed being in touch with people from the different communities as well as the IPH staff and thereby learning a lot more about Indian culture as well as about my own character and my country of origin.”
