Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on New Findings in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2024
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Gender-Culture-Place: Analysing Women’s Health in Various Neighbourhoods of Patna, India
Dr. Papia Raj
ABSTRACT:
Place is an important social determinant of health. Neighbourhood – where people live- af-fects people’s health and thus is an important spatial unit to study health inequalities. Both physical and social characteristics of neighbourhood affect behavioural practices and life-style choices which influence health status of people. The physical attributes (such as, built environment, food and recreational resources, natural spaces, availability of various ser-vices, quality of housing) and the social attributes (including safety/violence, social connec-tions, local institutions, caste composition, etc.) of neighbourhood create certain culture in that geographical space which shapes gender norms, especially for women. These are more evident in India where lifestyle activities and behavioural practices, even physical mobility of women are guided by these space-specific norms. Therefore, this study analyses influ-ences of specific neighbourhoods on health status of women within the broad conceptual framework of gender-culture-place in Patna, the capital city of Bihar, an underdeveloped province in India. Two types of neighbourhoods were chosen from Patna- a newly emerging posh neighbourhood and an older neighbourhood with more conventional settlements. Using a mixed method approach, this study compares how similar or different are the influences of specific types of neighbourhoods in a city on health status of women. The findings sug-gest that the health status of women are better in the newly emerging neighbourhood, which provides more conducive atmosphere for adopting heathy lifestyle practices and encourage positive health-seeking behaviours leading to holistic development.
keywords: neighborhood, social determinants of health, women’s health, development, mixed method, India