SAST3122 - Health & Society in South Asia

The infant mortality rate in Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan, and is 5, 23, and 48; and that in Kerala, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh is 5, 14, and 37 respectively. Such wide variations in health outcomes across neighboring countries, provinces, even districts, are among the many manifestations of the profound entanglements between health and society. In this course, we will study these entanglements in detail, and learn how health depends not just on what individuals or communities do, but also on decisions made and actions taken far away from them: in the national capital, or in Global North centers like Washington DC, or way back in the past by colonial and post-colonial officials. We will examine the enduring hold of the past on the present by learning why, for example, some people in South Asia still trust the millennia-old procedures of blood-letting and bone-setting, and why some others prefer C-sections so they can schedule the birth of their child as per astrological auspiciousness. We will read, watch, and discuss the works of scholars, activists, journalists, and filmmakers, and dive into the disciplines of history, anthropology, global health, demography, and science and technology studies (STS). By looking at health from perspectives that are often different to how it is conventionally discussed, this course will expand students’ understanding of public health, medicine, and health policy in South Asia as well as the world in general.