{"title":"I: COVID-19 pandemic and the politics of risk: Perspectives on science, state and society in India","authors":"V. Sujatha","doi":"10.1177/00699667211010710","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Health behaviour of the people is said to be shaped by market forces, scientific or religious institutions or the state. It is pertinent to examine the dominant institutions that shape health cultures in any society, at any given point in time. While public health has not been a priority for the Indian state, the COVID-19 pandemic created an unmistakable opportunity for state regulation. It is the argument of this article that the state has been central to the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic and the identification of relevant interventions, such that the borderline between the political and medical is blurred. The influence of these institutional decisions on the health behaviour of the people indicates that compliant health behaviour is a symbolic resource for the state in societies like India, irrespective of whether the government actually delivers on its health care delivery.","PeriodicalId":45175,"journal":{"name":"Contributions To Indian Sociology","volume":"55 1","pages":"254 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00699667211010710","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contributions To Indian Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00699667211010710","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
Health behaviour of the people is said to be shaped by market forces, scientific or religious institutions or the state. It is pertinent to examine the dominant institutions that shape health cultures in any society, at any given point in time. While public health has not been a priority for the Indian state, the COVID-19 pandemic created an unmistakable opportunity for state regulation. It is the argument of this article that the state has been central to the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic and the identification of relevant interventions, such that the borderline between the political and medical is blurred. The influence of these institutional decisions on the health behaviour of the people indicates that compliant health behaviour is a symbolic resource for the state in societies like India, irrespective of whether the government actually delivers on its health care delivery.
期刊介绍:
Contributions to Indian Sociology (CIS) is a peer-reviewed journal which has encouraged and fostered cutting-edge scholarship on South Asian societies and cultures over the last 50 years. Its features include research articles, short comments and book reviews. The journal also publishes special issues to highlight new and significant themes in the discipline. CIS invites articles on all countries of South Asia, the South Asian diaspora as well as on comparative studies related to the region. The journal favours articles in which theory and data are mutually related. It welcomes a diversity of theoretical approaches and methods. CIS was founded by Louis Dumont and David Pocock in 1957 but ceased publication in 1966. A new series commenced publication the next year (1967) at the initiative of T.N. Madan with the support of an international group of scholars including Professors Louis Dumont, A.C. Mayer, Milton Singer and M.N. Srinivas. Published annually till 1974, Contributions became a biannual publication in 1975. From 1999, the journal has been published thrice a year.