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This book explores how social discrimination in South Asia contributes to health disparities and impedes well-being. Specifically, it addresses how marginalization shapes health outcomes, both under normal circumstances and specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coming from diverse backgrounds and representing different academic disciplines, the authors have contributed a range of chapters drawing from quantitative and ethnographic material across South Asia. Chapters address reservation politics, tribal lifeways, Dalit exclusions from governmental institutions, Muslim ghettoization, gendered domestic violence, social determinants of health among migrant workers, and the pandemic fallout across South Asian society, among other subjects. Scholars draw on decades of experience and firsthand ethnographic fieldwork among affected communities. The chapters provide an innovative analysis, often in real time, of the human toll of casteism, classism, patriarchy, and religious intolerance-many set against the spectre of COVID-19. Many authors not only present social critiques but also offer specific policy recommendations. The book is of great interest to social scientists, public health practitioners, and policy advocates interested in addressing systemic inequalities and ensuring that future pandemics are not disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable.
List of contents
Of Prejudice and Pandemics.- Exceptional Aryans: State Misrecognition of Himachali Dalits.- 3. A World Inside a Pig's Stomach: Alimentary Knots of Tension Around Nutrition, Autonomy and Nationhood.- 4. The Role of Caste Prejudice in Hampering Infection Control Efforts in Government Hospitals.- 5. Public and Corporate Health Sector Disparities: Reflections on COVID-19 Experiences in India.- 6. Knowledge Accumulation During COVID-19: Increasing Digital Divide and Vulnerability Among Indian Students.- 7. Segregation of Muslims: A Reflection on Urban Living Environments and Infrastructure Conditions in Hyderabad.- 8. Experiences of and Responses to COVID-19 in a Ho Tribal Village in Jharkhand.
About the author
Sanghmitra S Acharya is Professor in the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was Director, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi (2015-18), and Chairperson of the Centre (2018-2020). She was Visiting Fellow at CASS, China (2012); Ball State University, USA (2008-09), and UPPI, Manila, The Philippines (2005); East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (2003), and University of Botswana (1995-96). She has been awarded fellowships and grants by UNFPA, Asian Scholarship Foundation, USEFI, ICSSR-CASS and SICI. She has authored books and articles on health and discrimination. Her books include 'Social Discrimination in Health Care Access among Dalit Children- Exploring Inclusive Environment. Academic Publications; 'Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi-Issues of Land, Labour and Health'; and 'Health, Safety and Well-Being of Workers in the Informal Sector in India-Lessons for Emerging Economies', both published by Springer. Sustainable Health in the times of COVID, and Sustainable Sanitation and Swachh Bharat- What we owe to the Cleaning Brigade both are under consideration by Aakar and Academic Publications.
Stephen Christopher completed a Ph.D. in anthropology from Syracuse University in 2018, specializing in Himalayan tribal ethnicity and refugee politics. In 2019, he was JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at Kyoto University. From 2022-24, he is a Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen. He is the Himalayas Editor at the Database of Religious History at the University of British Columbia. He has taught at Beijing Normal University, Vietnam National University, University of Bremen, Pitt in the Himalayas, Syracuse University, Semester at Sea and Tokyo Metropolitan University.
