Week 6 Activity Post

In rural India, a couple of the social determinants that affect the women’s health is the caste and patriarchy system in India. Rural India suffers the most due to the economical and social status of the women and families that live there; which are usually the ones at the lower level of the caste system such as the untouchables, farm workers, servants, and unskilled workers. All of these are considered the poor families and are at the lower level of the caste system. In the journal “Women’s Malnutrition in India: The Role of Economic and Social Status”, by Shikha Dahiya and Brinda Viswanathan they talk about how men are often in control of women and therefore, play a major role in dictating the woman’s life, such as making them do labor work for a long period of time, women having to put their husband before them and taking care of the household daily duties (Dahiya and Viswanathan 2015). Men also get away with violence and crimes against women in India. Due to this women often suffer from health and social issues such as malnutrition, lack of access to quality food and water, gender inequality, and intergenerational poverty.

In the article, Social Determinants of Health and Inequalities, Michael Marmot, shows a figure that depicts under-5 mortality rates in different countries, one of them being India. India had the highest under-5 mortality rates than the other countries in the figure. A reason for this based on the article “Slums and malnourishment: evidence from women in India” is because in rural parts of India, women have health issues and the lack of nutrients during their pregnancy (Swaminathan and Mukherji 2012). They often get sick or carry diseases and pass them onto their children. Due to this, some of the children are not able to survive the sickness and usually pass away.

One of Marmot’s statements about poverty that stands out to me and that applies to India is “It is not difficult to understand how poverty in the form of material deprivation— dirty water, poor nutrition—allied to a lack of quality medical care…First, it fails to properly take into account that relief of such material deprivation is not simply a technical matter of providing clean water or better medical care. Who gets these resources are socially determined” (Marmot 2005). With that being said, urban India usually reaps the benefits of these resources because of their power and availability to access the resources needed. In rural India, they don’t have the same benefits or access as urban India does which is why we see the social inequality gap between these two regions. Rural India is usually left with little to no resources which leads to the cycle of intergenerational poverty and diseases (Swaminathan and Mukherji 2012).

In the article, Social Determinants of Health the Solid Facts, World Health Organization mentions “Social and economic conditions result in a social gradient in diet quality that contributes to health inequalities. The main dietary difference between social classes is the source of nutrients” (World Health Organization 2003). This is a very powerful statement that applies to India. I believe that if rural India had the same access and resources to food that Urban India has, the health issues amongst women such as malnutrition and anemia would start to decrease. Women and their families would be more educated on sanitation, how to maintain a healthy diet as well as improve their health to diminish diseases in their community.

To conclude, a lack of access to resources for women and families in rural India has caused them to create a never ending cycle of intergeneration poverty. Women not having access to the necessities creates more health issues for them and it seems like the government and families in urban India do not care about women and families that are in the lower level of the caste system that are suffering.

References

Dahiya, Shikha, and Brinda Viswanathan. “Women’s Malnutrition in India: The Role of Economic and Social Status – Shikha Dahiya, Brinda Viswanathan, 2015.” SAGE Journals, 2015, journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0973801015579756. 

Marmot, M. (2005). Social Determinants of Health Inequalities. International Centre for Health and Society. 365: 1099.

Swaminathan, Hema, and Arnab Mukherji. “Slums and malnourishment: evidence from women in India.” American journal of public health vol. 102,7 (2012): 1329-35. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300424

Wilkinson, Richard. The Solid Facts: Social Determinants of Health. WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2003

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