About the Book
The inequalities prevailing in maternal health care services adversely affect the ‘life chances’ and ‘capabilities’ of the mothers as well as their children. The prevalence of high rates of miscarriages, stillbirths, congenital diseases, neonatal mortalities, infant mortalities and maternal mortalities necessitate a close scrutiny of the prevailing policies and academic approaches related to the issues.
The problems are not merely related to inadequacy of health care facilities or their improper distribution; the approaches of various state governments are themselves redundant and obscure. The volume depicts how skewed obsession of the policy makers and health delivering agencies with bio-medical approach and ignorance towards the interwoven social determinants of health result in adverse health outcomes.
Fourteen papers included in the volume study different states of India including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur from diverse perspectives. The essays offer an appraisal of the reproductive trajectory from pregnancy to childbirth across religious, regional, economic, occupational, ethnic and educational backgrounds. The volume intends to serve the needs of students of sociology, anthropology, social work, social policy, public health, medicine, economics, geography, women studies and all those concerned with these issues.
Contents
1 Maternal Health in India / Mohammad Akram
2 Understanding Women’s Health and Rights Issues / Madhu Nagla
3 Social Determinants of Maternal and Child Health in India / K.R. Nayar and Lekha Bhat
4 Do Women Benefit from Cancer Screening Programmes? / Suchitra Pradhan and Suhita Chopra Chatterjee
5 Contextualizing Maternal and Child Health in India / Afzal Sayeed
6 Culture, Social Class, Technology and Pain / Sayantika Palit
7 Reproductive Repertoire / Mohd. Shahid
8 Maternal Health Care Utilization among Social Groups in Madhya Pradesh / Anil Hiwale and Ajay Choudhary
9 Reproductive Health and Developmental Needs of Adolescent Girls in Manipur / Thounaojam Sunitibala Devi
10 Maternal Health among Rural Women / Shakuntala C. Shettar
11 Child and Maternal Health in Uttar Pradesh / Nida Siddiqui
12 Antenatal Care and Delivery of Health Practices among the Muslim Women of Yangbi Village of Imphal East, Manipur / Rajiya Shahani
13 Role of Maternal Locus of Control in Infant and Young Child-Feeding Intervention in Rural India / Sylvia Fernandez Rao, N. Balakrishna, Patrice L. Engle, Margaret (Peggy) Bentley and Shahnaz Vazir
14 Health Status of Pregnant Women among Scheduled Castes in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu / M. Thamilarasan and M. Suganya
About the Author / Editor
Mohammad Akram is Associate Professor of Sociology at Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Dr. Akram is Convener of Research Committee 12 (Population, Health and Society) of the Indian Sociological Society and Deputy Coordinator of DRS-I (UGC) at his department. He is immensely interested in health and development issues of the marginalized communities in India. His earlier works include Sociology of Health, Tribal Health and Health Dynamics and Marginalized Communities. Besides, he has written several research papers and chapters in edited volumes.
