Dear FOGSIans,

Greetings!!!

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.

My presidential theme of this year is “Swasth Nari, Sukhi Nari” or “Healthy Woman, Happy Woman”. The first quarter of my FOGSI Presidency (22nd October 2022 – 31st January 2023) has been a real roller coaster ride – exciting, frenetic and gratifying. In addition to the 5 major conferences, we also had the epic Nari Swasthya Janandolan Yatra (Women’s Health Roadshow), and launched many on ground activities including the Badlaav (Change) Clinics; FOGSI Presidential in-person workshops- ‘Karyashala: Evolve’ and FOGSI Presidential Initiative on gender equality – ‘Samanta’ (Equality). We also witnessed the grand FOGSI Republic Day Celebrations.

FOGSI-RCOG-MOGS International Conference

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.

FOGSI West Zonal Conference with Yuva

FOGSI West Zonal Conference with YUVA was held between 18-20th Nov 2022 at Nahargarh Palace, Ranthambore, Rajasthan, which is famous for its tiger sanctuary. The Chief Guest was MLA of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, Mr. Danish Abrar. FOGSI Has Talent – first elimination rounds also happened during this conference.

Nari Swasthya Janandolan Yatra (Women’s Health Roadshow) / Na Na Anaemia Ride



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.

AICOG 2023, Kolkata

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

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.

Badlaav Clinic

“The Badlaav Clinic” is a novel initiative started under my guidance for the betterment of women in our country. The initiative aims at Badlaav / Change in women’s health through amalgamation of Ekikaran (Integration), Samanta (Equality) and Takniki (Technology) – for beneficence of congregation. The Badlaav Clinic aims to provide free gynecological checkups to women on 18th of every month.

FOGSI Republic Day Celebrations

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.

FOGSI Presidential Workshops – “Karyashala: Evolve”

We launched the on-ground FOGSI Presidential Workshops called “Karyashala: Evolve”. We have conducted eight workshops so far, two on 22nd January (in Siliguri & Pune), two on 25th January (Chandigarh-Mohali & Noida), and four on 29th January, at the same time on the same day in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. All the Workshops were attended by more than 100+ gynecologists.

The first newsletter of the year – Voice

The quarterly FOGSI Newsletter ‘Voice’ edited by Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar was also launched in this quarter.

I delivered 5 orations in different cities across India – AOGD, Delhi; AOGO Bhubaneshwar; SAGOG, Statue of Unity; RCOG Mumbai; Bihar & Jharkhand, Patna. In addition, numerous webinars, CMEs and camps were done by various committee chairpersons.

I represented FOGSI in three on-the-ground meetings on Population (International Conference on Family Planning; Pattaya Thailand), Respectful Maternal Care (MSD for Mothers, Delhi) and Maternal Health (Govt. of India, Delhi).

All this was also accompanied by huge amount of work by the five FOGSI Vice Presidents (Dr. Asha Baxi, Dr. Sampathkumari, Dr. Yashodhara Pradeep, Dr. Alka Pandey and Dr. Geetendra Sharma), Secretary General FOGSI Dr. Madhuri Patel, my two National Coordinators – Dr. Rishma Pai and Dr. Nandita Palshetkar, my Joint Clinical Secretary and 12 Zonal Coordinators, 28 FOGSI Committee Chairpersons, and 266 FOGSI societies with the respective Presidents and Secretaries.

All these wonderful events have been possible because of your blessings, unwavering support and God’s wish. The year ahead is also packed with many academic and fellowship activities.

I request you all to participate and get involved in these events in maximum capacities and make them successful. I hope to meet and interact with every one of you personally sometime during my tenure.

Long live FOGSI, FIGO, AOFOG and SAFOG.
Thank you,

Dr. Hrishikesh Pai

M.D., F.R.C.O.G. (UK-HON), F.C.P.S., F.I.C.O.G., M.Sc. (USA)
President,
FOGSI
Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India