Health Inequities In India

This timely contribution to the global literature on health inequities approaches the subject through a synthesis and analysis of relevant published literature on India. Amongst the BRICS countries, India ranks the lowest in the gender-gap index and has the highest poverty rate, and there is clear evidence that socio-economic inequalities have increased in India in the twenty-first century. These have direct impact on the health conditions of its people; however, there has been relatively little concerted research attention on health inequities in India. This volume fills the gap by synthesizing research evidence since the year 2000 on the topic. This is perhaps the first volume on this topic of such scope and breadth. Its uniqueness lies in the synthesis of evidence across a range of axes of disadvantages within a single volume: socio-economic position, caste, gender, other socially constructed vulnerabilities such as disability, HIV status, migrant status; and health-system factors contributing to or mitigating inequities in health. Each core chapter not only summarizes research findings but also engages critically with the perspectives reflected in the chapters and proposes a framework for understanding the mechanisms through which health inequities result. This volume highlights and addresses research gaps in both methodology and content, and is valuable to researchers and students of public health and allied health disciplines, including the social sciences, and also to policy makers and donors.

This book addresses major aspects of inequity, such as access, financing, financial risk protection, gender, service delivery and utilization, in the healthcare sector in India,. Further, it discusses various measures for defining inequity in each of these aspects, and employs different indices for each dimension of inequity, which include financing, utilization, region, health outcomes, caste and class, and gender. The book covers both theoretical and empirical issues, examining fifteen major Indian States, as well as selected case studies at the district level. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, the book provides an overall view of the outcomes attributable to both economic development and policy changes per se. While providing essential data and insights for policymakers and researchers alike, the book also outlines further feasible policy changes that could potentially mitigate the current inequities in Indian healthcare. As such, it offers a valuable resource for upper graduate-level students in health economics, as well as for researchers and policymakers.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

How will the world's largest population approach its inequality challenges? This volume addresses this question by unraveling different strands of India's emerging health and gender geographies. It is the first book to offer a comparative study of these disparities in India, stressing the deep interaction between health challenges and patriarchal features. Most themes explored in this book illustrate the entangled nature of the social and regional determinants of gender and health imbalances in India. Through its rich cartography of contemporary India, the book represents the first Atlas exploiting district-level figures drawn from the latest sociodemographic survey conducted in 2019-21. After an initial methodological synopsis, the book is built around twenty chapters—illustrated by 75 original maps, figures, and tables prepared by thirty authors—and concludes with a synthesis of India's spatial patterns. Chapters engage with major themes of gender and health inequalities and explore an array of innovative indicators such as access to menstrual hygiene, cesarean deliveries, health insurance, son preference in fertility, female landownership, patrilocal systems, hypertension, anemia, hysterectomy, girl-only or single-child families, or traditional contraception. Together, they provide an often surprising glimpse into the present and future of India's gender and health landscape, highlighting the considerable progress accomplished over the last two decades alongside persistent gaps and emerging issues.

The theme of this book is health outcomes in India, in particular to outcomes relating to its caste and religious groups and, within these groups, to their women and children. The book’s tenor is analytical and based upon a rigorous examination of recent data from both government and non-government sources. The major areas covered are sanitation, use by mothers of the government’s child development services, child malnutrition, deaths in families, gender discrimination, and the measurement of welfare.

This book is an attempt for understanding the recent researches in health disparity study. This compendium volume is the outcome of the proceedings of the UGC sponsored seminar on the concerned theme being held at Sitalkuchi College in January 2016. The resource persons, academicians, the research scholars have contributed their research findings in this compendium volume. Hope this book would fulfill our desire to spread the knowledge in the need of other researchers in the domain of Public health.

This book provides an insight into the issue of health inequity brought about by the violent conflict in Northeast India. While examining the deep vulnerabilities and loss of well-being suffered by families displaced by conflict in the Indo-Bhutan borderland region, the authors raise fundamental questions of accountability and the role of various stakeholders in providing humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict. It highlights for the reader the role played by conflict and armed violence in dismantling a functioning public health system and delineates the long-term barriers to post-conflict recovery. The book is written by those who have worked in implementing development and peacebuilding programs in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) of Western Assam. The book especially brings to the fore the voices of those communities directly affected by conflict in Bodoland. The book is valuable to researchers, development practioners and policy makers. Given the unique format of the book, which includes a number of case studies, it is particularly useful for students of development, public health and allied disciplines such as international relations as well as peace and conflict studies.

"The Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries is a resource that enables countries to do just that. It presents a comprehensive yet clear overview of health inequality monitoring in a user-friendly manner. The handbook succeeds in giving those involved in health inequality monitoring an appreciation of the complexities of the process, as well as building the practical knowledge and skills for systematic monitoring of health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. The use of the handbook will enable countries to better monitor and evaluate their progress and performance with a high degree of accountability and transparency, and allow them to use the results to formulate evidenced-based policies, programmes and practices to tackle inequalities in an effective manner."--Publisher's description.