Kanika Sharma
Kanika Sharma's research interests are in gender, social inequality, and health. She has an M.A. in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and an M.Phil in Social Sciences in Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her M.Phil dissertation focused on the theme of gender and pain from an interdisciplinary public health perspective. Kanika has been involved with social movements and rights campaigns in India. She is interested in combining research and action in areas of health and wellbeing, and issues of social and gender justice. Her writings on activism and research have been featured in popular media, including The Hindu , Scroll.in , and Youth Ki Awaaz . As a Public Policy Scholar at the Hindu Centre, she studied women's lived experiences of physical pain, the social and health system support available to them, and the possible health policy responses to this largely neglected area.
Though quantitative evidence suggests that women are more likely to suffer from physical pain than men, little is known about their lived experiences. Nor are the processes and mechanisms through which social determinants of health cause pain well investigated or documented in India. In this Policy Report, Living with Pain: Women’s Everyday Lives and Health in Rural Bihar, Kanika Sharma discusses findings from qualitative fieldwork in rural Bihar, focusing on causes and consequences of pain among women agricultural workers, the group most vulnerable to physical pain. Pain, especially back pain, was found to be overwhelmingly common. The respondents embedded pain within the larger context of adverse health experiences throughout the life course. In addition, the backbreaking nature of women’s household and paid work, lack of protective nutrition and rest, and pervasive domestic violence emerged as important contributors to pain. The overall healthcare system was found to be largely ineffective. Informal private health providers, while accessible, were likely to be harmful. Neglect and mistreatment were common at the government health facilities, making women’s medical encounters disempowering. The Report outlines a few potential policy approaches, and ends with a hope that pain among women would become more central to discussions on gender and health in India.[PDF 5.11 MB]