Shamshad Dr. Bashir Ahmad Dabla

223 Pages·2016·11.14 MB·English

A Sociological Study of
The Kashmiri Women in Medical Profession

Dissertation Submitted to the
UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR

For the Award of the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D)

IN

Sociology

BY
Shamshad

UNDER THE SUPERIVISON OF
Dr. Bashir Ahmad Dabla
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK

POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL WORK
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR
HAZRATBAL, SRINAGAR (J& K) 190006

Dec. 2006
POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL WORK
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR
HAZRATBAL, SRINAGAR (J&K)

Certificate

It is hereby certified that the present work on the topic “A Sociological
Study of The Kashmiri Women in Medical Profession” is the original
research work of Shamshad. The research work has been carried out
under my supervision. It is further certified that this work has not been
produced/published earlier in part or full elsewhere for any degree so
far.

I deem it fit for submission for the award of Ph.D degree.

Supervisor

Dr. Bashir Ahmad Dabla
Professor
Postgraduate Department of
Sociology and Social Work
University of Kashmir
PREFACE

From the time immemorial history provides us with a varied picture of the status
and role of women. Early child marriage and pardah system confined them to their
homes. In most traditional societies, women generally were at a disadvantage. Their
education was limited to learning domestic skills and they had no access to positions of
power. Marriage was taken almost a necessity as a means of support or protection.

Sociological studies of women belonging to various cultures, regions and
communities in India, have revealed that they have undergone a certain degree of
transformation. The process of transformation not only involves changes in the material
culture of the society but also in its belief system. The process of transformation changes
the society from its backward outlook to a forward looking and progressive and
prosperous structural build up.
The achievements in the field of science and technology, the rapid growth of
industrialization and urbanization, the development of mass communication, and mass
education facilitated the process of transformation. Revolutionary changes were also
made in the field of women’s general education and in professional education, which in
turn meant equalizing the status of women with men. These changes have touched the
women of Kashmir as well.
The Kashmiri society which is traditionally a patriarchal and patrilocal society is
undergoing a transitional phase. The family patterns are changing significantly and so are
the traditionally defined roles of women. Women of Kashmir had practically no role out
side the home in traditionally upper and middle class families. They had no role to play in
the economic contribution of the family. The women of lower castes/class however were
traditionally been allowed to work outside the home to support themselves and their
family. The women of the higher caste/class were discouraged and prevented for
searching work for economic gain.
For long time, opportunities for women in fields other than teaching were
restricted. The legal and political professions did not open their doors easily to women.
But after independence, women have entered in various professions e.g. medical,
engineering, banking, journalism, administration, aviation etc. Today we see women in
hot professions like computers, Information Technology, Bio-technology and Bio-
informatics, Insurance, Private healthcare, Constructions Industry, hotel management,
media and entertainment, fashion designing and Armed forces. There have been
numerous studies of men and women in medical training and plethora of articles on the
differences in income productivity and career constraints. Women are better represented
in all places and in all specialties than they had been in the past women medics are
encouraged to go into specialties which were earlier male dominated. It is also clear that
once in practice, women physicians while highly productive and working continuously,
are still rarely represented in the higher circles of the medical establishment as heads of
medical schools, hospitals, large research institutions and prestigious clinical
departments. It is also clear that some women medics are still having inclination towards
traditionally female specialties pediatrics, family Medicine, Gynecology and Obstectrics,
and Dermatology.
Thus today in the light of professions thousands of women are coming forward to
bear the burden of work along with their fellow men in every walk of life. Thus it shows
that women’s entry into medical profession has led to a change in their perception and
performance of their domestic roles, besides expectations from others.
Thus the general purpose and objective of women’s education cannot be of course,
different from the purpose and objective of men’s education. Women’s education should
have a vocational or occupational or professional basis at the secondary and even at the
university stage.
The women’s rights movement has made some progress. In more than 90 percent
of the nation’s, women can vote and hold public office. Women in mainly nations have
gained legal rights and fuller access to education and all professions.
As a consequence of socio-economic and technological changes in the developing
societies, the human service professions, of which medicine is one have undergone
dramatic changes. Specializations and super specializations have brought in segmentation
and internal dissensions within the profession. Further due to divisions of labour,
differentiation process has brought in a large battery for semi-professionals and para-
professionals striking hard to attain autonomy in their professions.
The large scale changes among the Kashmiri women are reflected in the
enhancement of their status and also the change in their role in human service professions
particularly medicine. The change in the status and role showed a broad based social
change among the Kashmiri women.
Many studies were conducted to know about the men and their role in medical
profession. The present study was focused in the direction of knowing about the
sociological aspects and problems of women in medicine. The present study attempts to
analyse the changes that are taking place in the status and role of women medics in
Kashmir. This study seriously intended to know about medical education and career
constraints of women medics. The study was carried out through a micro sociological
framework and the main focus was to see as to what extent women in medical profession
had undergone social change. The study has also to examine the role played by women in
medical profession. The change in status and role among the women medics had been
studied through the important sociological variables viz. marriage, Age, Residence,
Income (economy), Family, occupation, professional education and nature and
experience of service in medical profession. There were no comprehensive reviews and
studies about “Women in White”, which might give an insight about the social aspects of
women in medical profession. The present study was focused in the direction of knowing
about the sociological aspects and problems of women in medical profession.
This study of women in Medical Profession is an empirical one. The overall study
was divided into six chapters. The first chapter was an introductory part of the study and
it focused on the theoretical framework in which this study has been carried out. The
second chapter was about methodology. This chapter discussed the purpose of the study,
objectives, hypotheses, methodology, universe of the study, sample of the study,
fieldwork, methods and techniques of investigations, data processing and analysis and
problems encountered during the data collection. The third chapter portrays the socio-
economic profile of the women medics. This chapter presents the economic and
educations background of the women medics. The fourth chapter explained findings of
the study based on extensive field work in sociological frame work related to medical
education, careers in academic medicine, occupational/professional mobility, relationship
with colleague community, referrals and reciprocity, women medics and discrimination,
women medics and private practice, women medics and impact and women social
mobility, women medics and problems. The chapter encapsulated the themes of
discussions and provides a sociological analysis of the research findings. The fifth
chapter summarizes the study and presents the conclusion that can be drawn and finally
the last chapter i.e. sixth chapter highlighted the suggestions of the study.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The research work entitled, “A sociological study of the Kashmiri women in
Medical Profession” has been undertaken to analyze empirically the change in relation to
sociological variables of women medics.
This research work was actually intended to know sociologically about the change
in status and role of women medics and their impact of being in medical profession on
women in Kashmiri society in relation to medical education at undergraduate and
postgraduate level, careers in academic medicine, occupational/ professional mobility,
relationship with colleague community, referrals and reciprocity, women medics and
discrimination/differentiation, medics and private practice and medics and impact and
problems.
A sociological study in this context was the need of the hour and I have uncovered
some of the truths about this complex work. This, I suppose was the beginning and
requires further research.
Here, thanks and gratitude are owed to all of them who helped me in various ways
in the completion of this dissertation.
To whom I am deeply indebted is my entrepreneur and supervisor Dr. Bashir
Ahmad Dabla, Professor, Postgraduate Department of Sociology and social work, who no
doubt is a sociologist par excellent. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work under
his expert supervision. His principles of emphasizing clear writing and his
uncompromising standards of accuracy continue to guide me. His scholarly guidance and
inspiration, enthusiastic attitude and encouragement, valuable suggestions and rational
professional advice helped me in conducting this research work in positive direction. He
is a competent guide, and noble person who taught me how to proceed towards the real
goal in life.
I feel pleasure to candidly express my deepest sense of gratitude to my mother,
brothers and other family members for their moral and polydimensional support during
the completion of this research.
I would miss a lot if I did not thank to my teachers in the Department who
encouraged me of and on and helped me in their own way to make this work a reality.
My special thanks are to Mr. Yaqoob, Statistician for his valuable statistical
assistance to complete this dissertation.
My special thanks to Miss Hikmat, Librarian of Postgraduate Department of
Sociology and Social Work for her cooperation and assistance in library work.
My special thanks to Madam Haseena for her assistance in locating the relevant
books for the study.
I am thankful to Mr. Ishrat-ul-Hamid Lone (Creative Computers) for his
secretarial assistance in completion fo this manuscript.

I owe my deep sense of gratitude to all the busy women medics who have very
patiently endured hours of questioning and have been sincere and generous with their
answers. They form the basis for this study. It is due to women medics cooperation which
made the existence of this dissertation possible.
It is customary at the end of the acknowledgement to thank the intimate others
who, through encouragement or forbearance, made the work possible.

December 2006 Shamshad
SPECIAL GRATITUDE

Many people have helped me in preparation of this Research work in a positive direction.
But one of my best teachers namely Prof. (Dr.) Anisa Shafi, Head of the Department of
Sociology and Social Work, to whom I am indebted and feel great pleasure to candidly
express my deepest and special word of thanks for helping me every time. She no doubt
is a Sociologist and Specialist Sociological Theoriticain whose principle of guidance,
enthusiastic attitude and advicde not only helped me in conducting this research work but
acted as a strong force/ right from my entrance into the department up to this time. She
helped me in her way and encouraged me to make this research work a reality.

December 2006 Shamshad
CONTENTS

S. No. T I T L E Page No’s
(i) Preface i-iv
(ii) Acknowledgement v-vii
(iii) List of Tables xiii - xiv
(iv) List of Abbreviations xv-xvi
(v) Map of District Srinagar 53
(vi) Hippocratic Oath 17
CHAPTER – I 1 – 43
Introduction
Status and role of Kashmiri women in traditional
1.1 1 - 3
society
1.2 Changes among the Kashmiri women 3 - 5
1.3 Profession 6 - 7
1.3.1 Views of different sociologists about professions 7 - 8
1.3.2 Traditional professions 8 - 10
1.3.3 The hot professions to today 10 - 13
1.4 Medical Profession 13 – 16
1.4.1 Motivations for the entry in Medical Profession 18 – 19
1.5 Women in Medical Profession at global level 19 – 21
1.6 Women in the Medical Profession in India 21 – 27
1.7 Evolution of Medical Profession and Kashmiri women 27 – 28
1.7.1 Medical Profession in ancient times 28 – 29
1.7.2 Medical Profession in medieval times 29 – 30
1.7.3 Medical Profession in modern times 30 – 34
Pioneer Kashmiri women achievers in the Medical
1.7.4 34 – 36
Profession
1.7.4 (I) Professor Dr. Girija Dhar 36 – 37
1.7.4 (II) Professor Dr. Mahmooda Khan 37-38