MBA in Health Management from Indian Institute of Health Management Research

Additional Degrees and Certifications:
• Attended Management Development Programme on:
• Managing Gender Issues In Health Care at IIHMR Jaipur
• Data Analysis and Interpretations for Monitoring at IIM Ahmedabad.

Garima Mathias has over a decade of experience in the field of sexual and reproductive health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in hospital administration, and a post-graduate diploma in health management from the Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur. Starting her career as the District Program Manager in the state of Gujarat under the flagship program of the Government of India – The National Rural Health Mission, Garima has led the implementation of various RCH programs, including family planning. She also worked as the Program Officer for Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health and HMIS, an online data management portal at the state level in Gujarat. Since 2010, Garima has been working with Ipas and has successfully managed the comprehensive abortion care program in number of states. She also implemented a one-of-a-kind public-private partnership initiative on abortion services called Yukti Yojana in the state of Bihar. Presently, Garima is working as Manager of Programs in the comprehensive contraceptive care program, which works towards serving vulnerable rural women in over 450 public health facilities. She was instrumental in developing the concept of onsite contraception training and a mechanism for post-training support to trained providers. She was also part of the national level team that developed IUCD service reporting and monitoring software for use in public health facilities.

Starting with my first job as a NRHM District Program Manager in Gujarat, my decade long work has focused mainly on family planning. It provided me an opportunity to learn, implement & monitor various RCH programs. Regular engagement with various cadres of health care providers helped me gain deep insight about the public health sector. Presently, I am working on a comprehensive contraceptive project serving vulnerable rural women in over 450 public health facilities. In this project, I developed mechanism for post training support to help HSPs provide consistent services to the rural women coming to public facilities. I was also a part of the national level team that conceptualized and implemented an IUCD service reporting and monitoring software which has been approved by NHM, GoI.

While pursuing my PG in health management I realized that FP services, if provided timely & accepted willingly, can significantly reduce maternal & child mortality & morbidity. As a DPM in Gujarat my regular interaction with service providers, CHWs & rural women helped me understand their expectation from health system. The realization that there is a huge unmet need for FP services and information related to the same spurred me in channelizing my efforts towards providing quality FP services.

I took lead to strengthen team’s capacity for implementing the onsite contraception training, a relatively new concept in public sector. The aim is to make services accessible to the rural women and men by training providers at their sites so that there is minimal disruption of regular services.
I was a member of the design team for conceptualizing a client follow-up mechanism for following-up IUCD clients. Formats developed for this have been adopted by MP Health department for use by ANMs.

I shall use the forum and the grant to develop innovative strategies and tools for engaging the young people in selected rural areas. Focus will be on creating SRHR awareness among youth using a combination of conventional and technology based tools in local language that are easy to understand and use. The aim would be to develop them as community leaders and educators.

https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-01…