Add to ORKGThis essay analyses the implications of the state performing a welfare function for an extended period of time in relation to the social contract between women citizens and the state. It argues that a prolonged status of ‘welfare provider’ ascribes certain patriarchal attributes to the state, which in turn reduces the position of the citizens, especially women, to a mere ‘beneficiary’ level. With the use of two specific policy documents relating to public health – Well Woman Clinic (WWC) programme launched in 1996, and the Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) policy designed in 1998 – it shows that in the absence of a rights based approach to public health, women have become mere beneficiaries, as opposed to active citizens, of the prol...