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Caste, COVID-19, and Inequalities of Care

Lessons from South Asia

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  • © 2022

Overview

Editors:
  1. Sanghmitra S. Acharya

    1. Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

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  2. Stephen Christopher

    1. Department of Human and Social Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan

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  • Offers a wide array of perspectives on the pressing issue of inequality in South Asia
  • Presents the most detailed ethnographic account of how reservation inequalities impede well-being
  • Examines inequality through the lens of economic prosperity and poverty

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Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Of Prejudice and Pandemics

    • Stephen Christopher, Sanghmitra S. Acharya
    Pages 1-8

  3. Institutional Exclusions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-12
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    2. Exceptional Aryans: State Misrecognition of Himachali Dalits

      • Stephen Christopher
      Pages 13-37

    3. A World Inside a Pig’s Stomach: Alimentary Knots of Tension Around Nutrition, Autonomy and Nationhood

      • Nimisha Thakur
      Pages 39-62

    4. The Role of Caste Prejudice in Hampering Infection Control Efforts in Government Hospitals

      • Payal Hathi, Nikhil Srivastav
      Pages 63-83

    5. Public and Corporate Health Sector Disparities: Reflections on COVID-19 Experiences in India

      • Sunita Reddy
      Pages 85-102

    6. Knowledge Accumulation During COVID-19: Increasing Digital Divide and Vulnerability Among Indian Students

      • G. Dilip Diwakar, Visakh Viswambaran
      Pages 103-126

    7. Segregation of Muslims: A Reflection on Urban Living Environments and Infrastructure Conditions in Hyderabad

      • K. M. Ziyauddin
      Pages 127-150

    8. Experiences of and Responses to COVID-19 in a Ho Tribal Village in Jharkhand

      • Jay Prakash Sharma
      Pages 151-169

  5. Health Inequalities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 271-273
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    2. Inequality and Exclusion in Access to HealthCare: Learning from the Pandemic

      • Sanghmitra S. Acharya
      Pages 275-295

    3. Caste Disparities in Health Care Utilization in India

      • Dhananjay W. Bansod, Pradeep S. Salve, Suresh Jungari
      Pages 297-315

    4. Reflections on Gendered Health Inequalities within Households

      • Arindam Roy
      Pages 317-331
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Sanghmitra S. Acharya

  • Department of Human and Social Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan

    Stephen Christopher

About the editors

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. 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Caste, COVID-19, and Inequalities of Care

  • Book Subtitle: Lessons from South Asia

  • Editors: Sanghmitra S. Acharya, Stephen Christopher

  • Series Title: People, Cultures and Societies: Exploring and Documenting Diversities

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6917-0

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-16-6916-3Published: 02 March 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-16-6919-4Published: 03 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-16-6917-0Published: 01 March 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2662-6616

  • Series E-ISSN: 2662-6624

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 394

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 16 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Social Care, Public Health, Social Structure, Social Inequality

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