Dr. Tony Colaco of ActionAid, Bangalore, studied the community and referral health activity being implemented by the Mahila Meetings and appreciated that it was an effort aimed at the socio-political empowerment of Coolie women.
He suggested ways and means by which the technical component of health could be introduced in such a manner as to not loose the empowerment bias and, at the same time, complement the mainstream health delivery system of the government with a pre-primary first line health care offered by VHWs.