Workshop "Gender, health and intersectionality in India: A social epidemiological perspective“

30. November - 1. Dezember 2018
CeMIS Boardroom 2.112, Waldweg 26, 2nd Floor.


This two-day intensive workshop will focus on the relationship between gender and health in the Indian context. Taking a social epidemiological approach, it will consider how a range of social factors, traditions and institutions impact upon both gender and health. Social epidemiology views the social aspects of human life as causal factors impacting health. Its emergence challenged traditional epidemiological thinking which viewed social factors as nuisance factors that needed to be accounted for while explaining the causes and distribution of diseases in a population. The workshop will be run by guest lecturer, Assistant Professor Malavika Subramanyam, an expert in social epidemiology from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and will take an interdisciplinary and multi-faceted approach to the topic.


Using the theoretical rubric of intersectionality, the workshop will deal with the interwoven power structures that impact upon marginalized communities in India. Various modes of social stratification - class, caste, rural-urban divisions and others - intersect with gender to impact upon reproductive and other health outcomes. The workshop will explore the influence of deeply rooted traditions in the Indian context, their negotiation and continuing impact in contemporary society. One example: media representations and expectations from men, women, transgender, and others.

Topics discussed will include:

- Intersectionality and health in India
- The impact of Indian culture, customs and traditions
- The urban-rural and liberal-conservative divide
- Son-preference: The key concept
- Media and gender
- Current struggles and negotiations
- Pathways linking all of these to health
- Efforts to address gender in the public health context

Background literature:

Chidambaram, Priyadarshini. "Gender-Based Inequities in Health in India." In Health Inequities in India: A Synthesis of Recent Evidence, edited by T.K. Sundari Ravindran and Rakhal Gaitonde, 121-56. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018.

Das, Veena, ed. Handbook of Indian Sociology. Oxford India papberbacks. Oxford India Handbooks. New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.

Menon, Nivedita. "Is Feminism about "Women"?" Economic and Political Weekly 50, no. 17 (2015): 37-44.

Nussbaum, Martha C. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008.

Register here