President’s Activities – First Quarter – October 2022 to January 2023

I feel truly blessed and humbled to be installed as 61st President of this huge esteemed organization, FOGSI. My official installation as FOGSI President (2022-2024) happened at the Femtek-1 Conference in Mumbai on 22nd October 2022, in presence of many celebrities and dignitaries. The star-studded evening was adorned by the presence of 4 Bollywood film stars including Karishma Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure; Union Minister, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste; FIGO President Elect Dr. Anne Kihara and FIGO Secretary General Dame Lesley Regan.

FOGSI-RCOG-MOGS International Conference was held at Mumbai between 4-6th November 2022. The international conference had esteemed faculty from all over the world and both the sitting President (Dr. Eddie Morris) and the incoming President (Dr. Ranee Thakar) of RCOG attended the conference.

Nari Swasthya Janandolan Yatra with the Na Na Anemia prevention ride was one of its kind Yatra which started in Rishikesh on 28th November and covered over 4000 km in 21 cities over 40 days, covering 5 Indian States (Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal) and 21 FOGSI societies. I personally visited 20 out of 21 cities and we could touch nearly 60 million people.

The ride also had a large red anemia bus and a big video van that was used to play women’s health related messages, specially prepared by FOGSI members. The van and bus were parked on the road, as we moved on, so that we could reach out to the community. We conducted 21 health check-up camps, collected relevant data and examined thousands of patients. Besides these, 21 public forums and 21 continuing medical education workshops were also conducted. All this would not have been possible without the support, dedication and blessings of our different FOGSI societies and members for which I want to thank each and every one of you from the core of my heart.

The FOGSI presidential All India Congress, AICOG happened in Kolkata between 4th to 8th January 2023. The conference was attended by 7500 plus Gynaecologists and 2000 allied delegates. There were 15 workshops, 11 multiple parallel academic halls and 5 public forums. The inauguration was in the presence of the FIGO President and Chief Guest Dr. Jeanne Conry, film star Vidya Balan and Olympic and world boxing champion Mary Kom as well as the entire FOGSI, FIGO (including President Elect Dr. Anne Kihara), AOFOG (including President Dr. Pisake), SAFOG (including President Dr. Rohana Haththotuwa), RCOG (including President Dr. Ranee Thakar), EBCOG (including President-Elect Dr. Louwen) leadership.

FOGSI Funference was led by Dr Rishma Pai, Past President FOGSI and Dr Sampath Kumari, Vice President FOGSI and others, in the schools of the mesmerizing islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The theme of the conference was Adolescent Health and Menstrual Hygiene. The meet had different scientific sessions and school counselling programs covering different adolescent problems.

The high point during the first quarter was the FOGSI republic Day celebrations with simultaneous (time range 7 to 9 am) unfurling of the Indian National Flag by 70 FOGSI societies, spread all over India, on 26th of January, the Republic Day. On this day, 73 years back, the Constitution of India came into force. I also launched the FOGSI Presidential initiative on Gender Equality called: “SAMANTA” on this occasion.