Abstract There is a proliferation of digitalisation of urban and health services in India under the Smart City and Digital Health missions, respectively. This study brings digital and feminist geographies together to understand the role of technologies in urban areas, particularly in health service delivery and how healthcare workers mediate these health platforms. Using a case study of Varanasi city in Uttar Pradesh, India this study documents whether—and to what extent—digital technologies and services enable citizens and service providers to access and improve their lived experiences. The findings indicate a top-down, innovation-focussed model is adopted which excludes and alienates different user groups and citizens shaping their interaction and access to these services.
Ashwini Tambe. 2019. Defining Girlhood in India: A Transnational History of Sexual Maturity Laws. University of Illinois Press. 218 pp., paperback, £19.99. ISBN: 978-0252084560.
PurposeThis paper develops a theoretical understanding of learning during recovery from recurring disasters when humanitarian organizations deploy WASH technologies using examples from 2012–2013 floods in Assam, Northeastern India.Design/methodology/approachA mixed methods study was conducted in Assam, where Oxfam had responded after 2012 floods and erosion. Two surveys (n1 = 313; and n2 = 279) in 2013, along with 38 semi-structured interviews, 18 household interviews and 23 focus group discussions (FGDs) were undertaken. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data were interpreted thematically.FindingsOne of the product-level innovations included raised platforms with WASH facilities as a preparedness measure for future floods, enabled by a co-learning approach. Social learning within community members provided contextual inputs, while Oxfam learnt through its institutionalized learning mechanisms, namely real-time evaluations, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys and strong monitoring mechanisms. Despite these measures, the precarity of such geographies remains a major concern in increasing vulnerability, and hence this study advocates for an approach towards innovation that equally emphasizes and advances learning within community groups as well as organizations so that lessons can be captured and revisited in future programmes and promote wider application.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is exploratory, and longitudinal in nature, although the data and findings are fairly representative of the target population, they do not imply causality and attribution. Since the study relies on a case study, there are limitations of how the findings could be generalized in other similar contexts.Practical implicationsThis paper offers a new theoretical lens emphasizing context-specific understanding of short-term but rapid onset and cyclical emergencies resulting in local population displacement. It provides a bottom-up perspective on innovations and technologies deployed by external aid agencies as a commentary on recovery of community resilience from recurring disasters.Social implicationsThis paper reframes agency approaches in how they perceive community resilience and enable flood-affected and displaced communities to recover using innovations in WASH technologies.Originality/valueThis paper expands on the key lessons to be gleamed from the many interventions in humanitarian WASH technologies from learning perspective and benefits from reflections as a practitioner in the field.
This paper addresses challenges in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during recovery by documenting relief and recovery efforts by Oxfam to improve WASH behaviour changes after 2013 Cyclone Phailin and floods in Odisha. Findings are based on a mixed-methods study in three districts: Oxfam undertook a cross-sectional survey at baseline and end line (n 1 = 374; n 2 = 366) households were undertaken in Puri and Ganjam districts in 2014. Qualitative data were collected in Puri and Balasore from 50 interviews including household members and key informants such as health workers, and government officials. 43 focus group discussions with female and male community members were conducted as part of the response programme. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was interpreted using an inductive Framework approach. Agency interventions focussed on communal water supply, and shared sanitation facilities. Although households readily adopted safer water-related practices, there were no changes in open defecation prevalent in these districts. This study suggests that if WASH recovery programmes are to be instrumental in improving community health, sanitation and resilience, they need to emphasise on health education, addressing social norms, attitudes and preferences for open defecation through community participation and interconnected approach.
In this article, I examine the circulation of jokes about sexual violence among young middle‐class women in the South Indian city of Chennai. Drawing on ethnographic research with undergraduate students in this city, I locate the rape joke in an ambivalent discourse of risk that conflates the possibility of sexual assault with the perceived 'risks' of women's sexual autonomy. In this context, I argue that humour about sexual violence functions as a form of lateral agency, facilitating a break from the task of reproducing middle‐class respectability.
There is a paucity of empirical insights on how existing policies in disaster recovery and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) play out during disaster recovery in the Global South. This paper addresses this critical gap using the case study of 2013 Cyclone Phailin in Odisha. The data was collected through participatory and learning action tools and semi-structured interviews with key informants. This study found pervasive exclusion of women and local actors from recovery decision-making. The policies and guidance at national and subnational level lacked clear emphases on roles and responsibilities of the local governments, and did not emphasise their role in setting recovery objectives and priorities. We conclude that existing policies should emphasise immediate as well as longer-term WASH needs, adopt a multi-hazard perspective in preparedness and WASH policies, and feature WASH during recovery in the existing manuals, policies and programmes.
PurposeRethinking participation in disaster research and practice could be facilitated when practitioners are provided with opportunities to pause and reflect deeply on their work outside of the context of their own individual projects and organizational networks. The article draws from an extended collaboration between researchers from multiple countries and disciplines in a working group, which aimed at exploring ethics, participation and power in disaster management.Design/methodology/approachUnder responsible engineering science and technology for disaster risk management, the authors undertook weekly meetings over four months to discuss various facets of adopting participatory methods in their individual projects in Nepal, India, the Philippines and the USA. The article develops a critical reflection of practice using an auto-ethnographical and poly-vocal approach.FindingsThe voluntary, digital, sustained, unstructured, recurring and inter-disciplinary characteristics of the authors' working group created an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from different fields and different national, cultural and linguistic backgrounds to come together and collectively issues related to participation, ethics and power.Research limitations/implicationsIn the paper, the authors do not offer a systematic evaluation of what was a fairly unique process. The paper offers no evaluation of the working group or others like it that focus on questions of replicability, scale and sustainability.Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current work is a unique paper that focuses on situating multi-disciplinary practice within disaster risk management (DRM) and enhancing networks, capacities and expertise for professional education for engineers, physical and social scientists who are involved in research and practice. The polyvocal character of the presentation will help readers access the particular experiences of the participants, which reflect the deeply personal character of the subject matter.
The humanitarian cluster approach was established in 2005 but clarity on how lessons from humanitarian clusters can inform and strengthen health system responses to mass displacement in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) is lacking. We conducted a scoping review to examine the extent and nature of existing research and identify relevant lessons. We used Arksey and O'Malley's scoping framework with Levac's 2010 revisions and Khalil's 2016 refinements, focussing on identifying lessons from discrete humanitarian clusters that could strengthen health system responses to mass population displacement. We summarised thematically by cluster. Of 186 sources included, 56% were peer-reviewed research articles. Most related to health (37%), protection (18%), or nutrition (13%) clusters. Key lessons for health system responses included the necessity of empowering women; ensuring communities are engaged in decision-making processes (e.g. planning and construction of camps and housing) to strengthen trust and bonds between and within communities; and involving potential end-users in technological innovations development (e.g. geographical information systems) to ensure relevance and applicability. Our review provided evidence that non-health clusters can contribute to improving health outcomes using focussed interventions for implementation by government or humanitarian partners to inform LMIC health system responses to mass displacement.
