#5: How Do Power Differences in Medical Interactions Affect Caste-based Discrimination?
Doctors are seen as having a high degree of knowledge and expertise about diagnosing and treating ailments. The Hippocratic Oath requires them to provide fair and equal healthcare to all. Researcher Sobin George investigates how caste impacts doctor-patient interactions in Meenkara, a village in Karnataka, with heightened Dalit consciousness.
He shares with us how India’s caste-based social order and unequal power relations between doctors and patients result in unchecked practices of upper- and middle-caste health care practitioners providing subpar care to Dalit patients.
The insights he will share are based on an article he published in Economic and Political Weekly on 5 October 2019 titled “Reconciliations of Caste and Medical Power in Rural Public Health Services.”
Audio courtesy: Night Owl by Broke For Free [CC BY 3.0]