Equity and Access: Health Care Studies in India

Despite significant advances in medical knowledge and profession in India, health care scenario continues to present exacerbated inequality, discrimination and inaccessibility to a large majority of the people. This volume attempts to unravel the complex and tense narrative of why inequities in the health sector are growing and access to basic health care is worsening. What are the underlying forces that contribute to this situation? The book prominently brings into discussion the sharpening health inequalities in the last two decades to draw attention to the way globalization has influenced India’s development trajectory. It also explains how state and market forces have progressively heightened the iniquitous health care system and the process through which substantial burden of meeting health care needs fell on the individuals and households, impacting different classes, castes, gender and other categories. While there are numerous research studies on aspects of health care, there is no single volume that captures health equity or inequity across the sectors in health. Seventeen original papers in this volume written by scholars from social sciences, medical sciences, public health, policy makers, health activists, legal experts, gender specialists contributes to a new field “health care studies’. The volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach within a broader political economy framework. This theoretical frame is useful to understand power relations within social groups and complex organizational systems. The importance of this volume also lies more in its timeliness as it engages with the issues of health inequities as part of a global conversation.