Stray Thoughts

I started my professional career as a village doctor. Later I moved on to public health and my focus shifted to improving healthcare services. Today, I am in that stage of life which is called Vanaprastha , and I live in a small village in Uttarakhand. This allows an opportunity to reflect upon the lessons that I have learnt. At my age, I should not be speaking about the struggles of young people, but from experience gleaned over the years there are some things I wish to share with you. Living among and working with people from north Indian villages, I realized that women’s social status has a deep impact on their health. This understanding inspired me to study their lives, especially around their health-related problems more seriously and to work toward solutions. In this process, I also gradually started to understand the social life of men and about their so-called masculinity . How it is constructed, what factors influence it, and how its effects appear in society and affect them...

The alarm on his mobile phone gently buzzed beside Diwan’s pillow and his arm snaked out from beneath the quilt to kill it before it started ringing. He didn’t want to wake up his brother Mohan who had come home last evening. He quietly got out of the room, quickly poured some cold water on his face, and finished his morning ablutions. He changed into his shorts and singlet put on his sneakers and was running down the narrow mountain path to meet with his friends Kamal and Bhimraj who would be waiting at Kundan’s shop. It was 5.30 am and the skies had just about started to become pale behind the hills to the east. After a few stretches the three boys, or young men, since they had all turned 18, started slowly jogging up the rutted village road. It was turning cold as the weather had started changing after the rains, but the boys started sweating as they pounded the pot-holed tarmac. Every day for the last month these three boys had started their new schedule. Early morning and late eve...

In recent years, it has become apparent that women’s empowerment alone may not ensure gender equality. Despite improvements in  several development indicators , including women’s education level and age at the time of marriage, there are many other areas where improvements have not been as remarkable. Increasingly, there’s recognition for the need to address deeply rooted discriminatory gender norms, sparking new interest in working with men and boys in particular. Several interventions that  address younger boys  both within and outside schools have been introduced across India. Programmes aimed at gender equality have been launched in colleges and universities. Fathers are being included in family planning and maternal health programmes. The issue of ‘toxic masculinity’ is also being discussed alongside violence against women. People have recognised that if men are part of the problem of gender discrimination, they have to be part of the solution as well. Gender equalit...

Before the Covid pandemic struck, and work from home became the norm I conducted a few workshops with corporate sector staff on men and gender equality. In most cases my sessions would follow sessions on sexual harassment in the workplace and the POSH law. By this time most men in the group would be apprehensive and justifying in their heads how their work place situations were not as described in the sessions earlier. In these circumstances it would be difficult for me to draw them into a discussion on creating a gender friendly workplace. This led me to think whether from the point of view of workplace productivity or even a more congenial workplace does it make sense to have stand alone sessions on men, masculinity and gender equality in the workplace for the corporate sector. I have been working on men, masculinity and gender equality in the non-profit and development sector for over two decades now. We have looked at why it is important to involve men to improve women’s health out...

No! This is not a blog on POSH. But yes, it is meant for men. Over the years the term gender has become common in our everyday lexicon, but men still view it like a proverbial banana peel on their path. They avoid it, they step over it or past it. Sometimes they even wonder whether it will rear up like a snake. But whatever they do, they are always careful not to step on it. They have a primal fear that if they do, they will invariably slip! When I first started talking about gender with men, doctors all, from different states in India, about 25 years ago, there was a confusion about what the term meant. Doctors dealt with the body, and they all assumed that gender was the same as sex. Gender differences for them were all the difference between women and men. From mustaches and breasts to why women were better mothers and men stronger and braver. In those days, the many forms that mark our interactions with officaldom, the term ‘gender’ was used when it wanted the person filling it...

The period of Navaratri has just ended with Ramnavami. In the hills of Uttarakhand where I stay now, the period is marked by a period of fasting, praying and singing. Our valley resounded with prayers from all directions alternately reverberating and damped by the mountainsides and forests. On Ram Navami the Bhagwat Katha and Kirtans or prayers ended with the bhandara or the communal feast. Women wearing their best clothes with their children straggling behind them or skipping ahead, went up and down the road above our house, going to or returning from the Bhagwat further up. In the evening the sound of hudka , a local handheld drum, marked the jagar or prayers to the local god by the dancing shaman that went late into the night. Our participation in the ritual festivities was limited to having the puri, chole and halwa that our neighbour brought us. It was a dignified, peaceful and happy nine-day celebration of the new year here in our village. Elsewhere the news around the cel...