For the Public Good: Women, Health, and Equity in Rural India

233 Pages·2020·1.416 MB·English

by  Patricia Antoniello

For the Public Good
SerieS editorS: Svea Closser, Emily Mendenhall, Judith Justice, & Peter J. Brown
Policy to Practice: Ethnographic Perspectives on Global Health Systems illustrates and pro-
vides critical perspectives on how global health policy becomes practice, and how critical
scholarship can itself inform global public health policy. Policy to Practice provides a venue
for relevant work from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, history,
political science, and critical public health.
For the Public Good
Women, Health, and
Equity in Rural India
Patricia antoniello
Vanderbilt UniVersity Press
Nashville, Tennessee
© 2020 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2020
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Antoniello, Patricia, 1946– author.
Title: For the public good : women, health, and equity in rural India
/ Patricia Antoniello.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2020] | Series:
Policy to practice | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2020007878 (print) | lCCn 2020007879 (ebook) |
isbn 9780826500243 (hardcover) | isbn 9780826500236 (paperback)
| isbn 9780826500250 (epub) | isbn 9780826500267 (pdf)
Subjects: lCsH: Rural health services—India—Maharashtra. | Com-
munity health aides—India—Maharashtra. | Women’s health
services—India—Maharashtra.
Classification: lCC ra771.7.i4 a58 2020 (print) | lCC ra771.7.i4
(ebook) | ddC 362.10954/79—dc23
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007878
lC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007879
With love (—Sine te nihil potest)
Sara, Ben, Alexander, and John

With respect
Dr. Shobha Arole and Ravi Arole
and Mrs. Ratna Kamble

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
introdUCtion 1
1. Two Hundred and Fifty Miles East of Bombay 21
2. The Endemic Problem of Caste and Gender Inequality 39
3. Health Is What Women Do: Transitions and
Transformations 56
4. “Why Are You Sitting at Home Being Oppressed?”:
Becoming a Village Health Worker 74
5. Woman and Child Health: You Will Give
Birth to a Beautiful Baby 98
6. Money in Her Hand: Mahila Vikas Mandal 132
7. Standing on My Own: Women and Equity 154
ConClUsion: Local Solutions to Global Problems 183
Bibliography 197
Index 209

ACknowledgments
I am grateful to an incalculable number of people both in India and at home
for the support, kindness, and collaboration that made this book possible.
As Muktabai said, one lamp lights another, reminding us that we stand in
the history of others. My eternal gratitude to Dr. Raj Arole who was a truly
dedicated, pious, and heroic physician and educator. He was at the same
time dynamic and unassuming in his leadership of CRHP, his commitment
to work for the poor, and his concern for a just health system for India, as
his work on the National Rural Health Mission showed. Dr. Arole generously
gave me his support for my research and spent time talking about India,
health, anthropology, and caste. Our chats on winter nights in the garden
around a wood fire are most memorable. His life and work have left an in-
delible mark as he is a true humanitarian.
Dr. Shobha Arole, medical director of CRHP, was a whirlwind of profes-
sional energy and commitment. In a typical day she would do rounds at the
hospital, go with the mobile health team to do a village clinic visit, teach a
class of VHWs, teach a group of students from an American or Australian
college, and then, when called at 3:00 a.m., perform an emergency cesar-
ean surgery—all accomplished effortlessly. Shobha became a colleague and
friend as I negotiated my own education about India and CRHP. I traveled
with Shobha to professional conferences in the US, where she gave insight-
ful research papers on CRHP at the American Public Health Association
annual meetings and Global Health conferences, and to the many talks she
was invited to give in India. Our trip to foundations in Delhi to search for
appropriate funds for continuing projects and programs was memorable.
In the process I thoroughly enjoyed our daily meals and the always insight-
ful and instructive conversations at her home, as well as our exploits away
from Jamkhed travelling in India and the US.
Ravi Arole, in his own dynamic and inimitable way, has charted an amaz-
ing new course for CRHP. As the current director, he has provided a stable
[ ix ]