Chronicles from Central India: An Atlas of Rural Health

In rural and tribal India, nearly all diseases are prevalent in much higher numbers and more complex forms than in urban parts of the country. This is because people in rural areas are adversely located on several socio-economic determinants of health, including availability of food, environmental stress, distance from healthcare facilities and access to education. The work of the Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS; Health Support Group), the authors write, “has taught us that disease is the biological embodiment of deprivation.” The JSS is a collective of health professionals from the country's leading institutions; the group’s services-based programme is over a decade old. It covers more than 1.5 million people across 2,500 villages in northwestern Chhattisgarh (“arguably the country’s epicentre of underdevelopment”) and southeastern Madhya Pradesh, where, they write, “We have observed and tried to manage massive levels of hunger, malnutrition, resultant illnesses and much avoidable mortality.” This report examines "the political economy of the ailments of the rural and tribal poor in India." It documents disease patterns among rural populations and investigates the political and economic policies that impact sociocultural practices. Together, these create a regime of structural violence that most severely impacts the rural poor. The report uses official data and other studies along with patients’ narratives, picture stories, blog notes and disease maps to create an account that is important for "anyone concerned with human development and …greater equity and justice."