Impact of gender norms on women's health ...
The interrelationship between gender and malaria among the rural poor in Jharkhand
Sama’s experience of working with various communities over the country for several years, brought to fore time and again episodes of avoidable and untimely death due to communicable diseases.
The study is conceptualized within the understanding of poverty and gender acting as determinants of poor health outcomes. The objective of the study was to examine these larger overarching factors that influence the experience of malaria among the poor in the rural communities of Jharkhand. Jharkhand, earlier a part of Bihar, is one of the few states with a high prevalence of malaria along with a host of other set of communicable diseases.
The study highlights the abysmal state of public health and delivery system in the state and illustrates how gender acts as a detriment for women, especially pregnant women, by limiting their access to treatment. It also explored the various aspects of gender, poverty and reproductive biology that increase the vulnerability of women and the poor to malaria. Furthermore, the study was an attempt to strengthen advocacy efforts to improve the ever-declining budget allocation for health and more specifically for communicable diseases.