Papers by Radhika Ramasubban
Cultural Perspectives on Reproductive Health
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s growing interest in women’s reproductive well being has brou... more Since the late 1980s and early 1990s growing interest in women’s reproductive well being has brought to the fore for the first time the considerable burden of reproductive morbidity carried by poor women in developing countries (Dixon-Mueller and Wasserheit 1991; Germaine et al. 1992). Community-based studies in developing countries to estimate the incidence of reproductive tract infections (RTis) among poor women have revealed that this morbidity and general ill-health is, for the most part, silently endured by women, due to a combination of forces which serve to keep women’s sufferings invisible: cultural restrictions and gender inequalities in the form of lack of autonomy over mobility, finances and decision making, low educational levels, poor awareness about their bodies, about their health and about available services, and infrastructural shortcomings in the form of lack of good quality and sensitively tuned health and counselling services (Bang et al. 1989; Wasserheit et al. ...
Economic and Political Weekly, 1998
... in bringing together research and advocacy NGO groups into the AIDS and reproductive health d... more ... in bringing together research and advocacy NGO groups into the AIDS and reproductive health domain; f ... who are by far the most ubiquitous avenue for pre-and extra-marital sexual gratification, parti-cularly among the poor of all ages and among adolescent youth, there is ...
Giri Institute of Development Studies eBooks, 1978
Global Public Health, Jul 1, 2008
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in India has posed unprecedented challenges to both state and society, to q... more The HIV/AIDS epidemic in India has posed unprecedented challenges to both state and society, to question prevailing constructions of patriarchal gender relations and heteronormativity. Response to the challenge has come not from the political and social mainstream but from the criminalised "margins": people of alternative sexualities, who have launched a struggle for reform of the anti-sodomy law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. This article documents the history of this movement, and identifies the multiple national and global-level cultural, political, and economic strands, shaping it. The legal reform movement has been invaluable as a tool to mobilise disparate alternative sexualities groups around a common strategy, thereby forging them into a tenuous national-level "community". Going beyond legal reform in the direction of sexual rights, however, requires a broader coalition of groups, and a broad-based political agenda of sexual rights for all. This agenda must critique patriarchy, dominant masculinity, and sexual violence; forces that together govern both the subordination of women and repression of alternative sexualities.
Water Resources Research, Jul 1, 1993
The current situation in water supply in rural Kerala can be described as a "low-level equilibriu... more The current situation in water supply in rural Kerala can be described as a "low-level equilibrium trap"." Systems provide a low level of service with few yard taps. Because there are few connectors and because tariffs are low, little revenue is generated. The water authority can afford to maintain the system up to a level at which the reliability of service is low, forcing consumers to supplement piped water from traditional sources. This study analyzes contingent valuation data collected In three areas of Kerala. The analysis shows that, by making a few critical policy changes-encouraging connections by public financing of connection charges, raising tariffs, and improving reliability-the systems can ratchet up to a "high-level equilibrium" In which there are a large Tiumber of connectors, revenues are greatly increased, supply can be made much more reliable, access to yard taps is made substantially more equitable, and there are large improvements in welfare.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 17, 2022
The World Bank Economic Review, 1995
In 1988, families in Kerala State in India were surveyed to ascertain their willingness to pay fo... more In 1988, families in Kerala State in India were surveyed to ascertain their willingness to pay for household connections to a piped water supply system. In 1991 the families in these communities were surveyed again and their actual decisions recorded. This article explores the validity of the findings of the 1988 study on the basis of actual behavior. It looks at the question of benefit revelation: did people behave as they said they would? And it looks at the question of benefit transfer: did people in one site behave as they were predicted to behave, on the basis of the predictions of a behavioral model for a different site? The data were also used to analyze the policy relevance of behavioral modeling. The ability to put a value on environmental resources is a core problem in environmentally sustainable development in industrial countries (Carson and Mitchell 1993 and Mitchell and Carson 1989) and developing countries alike (Serageldin and Steer 1994). During the past twenty years there has been a vigorous and contentious debate about the relative merits of various approaches (Brookshire and others 1982; Arrow and others 1993). The "indirect approach" draws conclusions from actual behavior; the "direct approach," or the contingent valuation method, draws conclusions from responses to hypothetical questions. The "benefit-transfer" issue in environmental economics, which is concerned with transferring valuations from one population to estimate how a second population would value the same resource, further complicates the debate (Pearce 1993).
... Autonomy and maternal health-seeking among slum populations of Mumbai Zoë Matthews,Radhika Ra... more ... Autonomy and maternal health-seeking among slum populations of Mumbai Zoë Matthews,Radhika Ramasubban, Bhanwar Rishyasringa and Will Stones Page 2. ... Zoë Matthews 2 ,Radhika Ramasubban 1 , Bhanwar Rishyasringa 1 and Will Stones 2 ...
Springer eBooks, 1987
The forces which condition the development of scientific and technological activity in the late (... more The forces which condition the development of scientific and technological activity in the late (or newly) developing countries embody several contradictory elements. Although modern science and technology were introduced into these countries in a limited way during the colonial period and their importance highlighted during the freedom struggles, it was only after the attainment of political independence that they were accorded the role of major knowledge producing institutions, i.e., where scientific knowledge is highly regarded and its production strongly supported. The State, in these countries, has sought deliberately to steer the scientific system under its own sponsorship, direction and management in order to turn it into a tool of economic development.
The Wire Science, Jul 3, 2020
In 1999 five of the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Groups (IRRRAG) constituent... more In 1999 five of the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Groups (IRRRAG) constituents came together to launch a second research-action project coordinated by ARROW. The new studys starting point was that interventions geared towards male responsibility must be designed so as to promote womens equality and not diminish resources available to women or erode any minimal control they had over their own lives. The other objective of the study was to clarify the meaning of reproductive rights for women and men in diverse cultural national and social contexts which would then inform larger quantitative studies programmes and policies The five-country team (Malaysia the Philippines Nigeria Mexico and Brazil) collectively developed the conceptual framework. At the heart of unequal gender relations where mens power over women works to womens disadvantage are hegemonic notions of what constitute masculine and feminine identities with their associated values and expectations sexual...
Leprosy Review, 1991
Based on the hypothesis that a systematic, carefully planned educa tional approach to leprosy wou... more Based on the hypothesis that a systematic, carefully planned educa tional approach to leprosy would yield results in terms of knowledge, attitudes and case presentation superior to those of the established and traditional mass survey method, ALERT-India launched a programme in S ward of Bombay in February 1985, to compare the two. An intensive programme of health education, using trained teams, was carried out in one zone of this war:d over a period of 12 months. Eight months later, mass survey work (as used routinely in previous years and on a country-wide basis) was carried out in an adjacent zone. In 1987, the Centre for Social and Technological Change in Bombay, in association with the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, was requested to evaluate the effect of the above educational approach in terms of knowledge, attitudes and practice in both the trial and control zones. Other aspects of this experimental approach, including its cost and effectiveness in identifying cases of leprosy, will be published separately. The design of the 'KAP' evaluation and the social and environmental controls introduced in the statistical analysis are described. The results pointed to a considerable degree of ignorance about leprosy as a disease (and its treatment) in both the study and the control zones. Knowledge about early symptoms was particularly weak and on all aspects scores for women were invariably lower than men. General education enhanced the absorption of specific knowledge, and the education of children compensated adequately for lack of parental education in this respect. Overall the evaluation indicated that the intensive educational approach was superi or to the survey approach in terms of improving knowledge, attitudes and practice.
Disease, Medicine, and Empire, Mar 17, 2022
"Sex is always political," and its politicization involves the continual attempt to draw boundari... more "Sex is always political," and its politicization involves the continual attempt to draw boundaries between "good" and "bad" sex based on "hierarchies of sexual value" in religion, medicine, public policies, and popular culture. These hierarchies "function in much the same ways as do ideological systems of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious chauvinism. They rationalize the well-being of the sexually privileged and the adversity of the sexual rabble." But in some historical periods, negotiations over sexual "goodness" and "badness" become "more sharply contested and more overtly politicized." These were the insights of U.S. feminist and sexual rights activist Gayle Rubin, in an article written more than two decades ago. 1 But clearly the ethical and political conflicts Rubin warned us about, far from being resolved, are more prevalent today than ever-on a global scale. The revival of religious extremisms of all kinds, the "war on terror" with its rationalization of unrelenting militarism and torture, the shadow of U.S. military hegemony, and an atmosphere of unbridled power create unusually dangerous times for those committed to
Water Resources Research, 1993
The current situation in water supply in rural Kerala can be described as a "low-level equilibriu... more The current situation in water supply in rural Kerala can be described as a "low-level equilibrium trap"." Systems provide a low level of service with few yard taps. Because there are few connectors and because tariffs are low, little revenue is generated. The water authority can afford to maintain the system up to a level at which the reliability of service is low, forcing consumers to supplement piped water from traditional sources. This study analyzes contingent valuation data collected In three areas of Kerala. The analysis shows that, by making a few critical policy changes-encouraging connections by public financing of connection charges, raising tariffs, and improving reliability-the systems can ratchet up to a "high-level equilibrium" In which there are a large Tiumber of connectors, revenues are greatly increased, supply can be made much more reliable, access to yard taps is made substantially more equitable, and there are large improvements in welfare.
The World Bank Economic Review, 1995
Economic and Political Weekly, 1971
Character of State Power and Strategy for Revolution Radhika Ramasubban THE second all-India con... more Character of State Power and Strategy for Revolution Radhika Ramasubban THE second all-India conference of the Indian School of Social Sciences was held in Madras from September 23 to 27, 1971. The first conference, held in Trivandrum in June 1969, had taken for its general theme the Marxian approach to research in the social sciences. This year's gathering of committed Marxists and students of Marxism pursued the same approach, the specific theme being "The Character of State Power in India and the Strategy for Revolution". Between 1969 and 1971 there has been a major change in the Indian political scene with the formation of the CPI(ML) and several other Maoist groups which, through their characterisation of the state and their revolutionary strategy, have seriously questioned the legitimacy of the traditional Left parties. The conference could have, therefore, afforded an excellent platform for thrashing out fundamental issues by Marxist scholars and theorcticians ...
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Papers by Radhika Ramasubban