Women, Health and Public Services in India ─ Why Are States Different?

Why are inter-state differences in human development in India so high? What explains regional patterns where overall the southern region has some of the best human development outcomes in the country while the states in the northern ‘heartland’ have the worst? In addressing these important questions, this volume provides a detailed analysis of health outcomes in India, especially its effects on women. It offers insights into how multiple factors affecting human development, in particular health, play out differently in various socio-cultural and economic contexts.

This book will interest scholars and researchers of sociology, development studies, gender studies, economics, public policy as well as general readers.

Dipa Sinha is an independent researcher based in New Delhi, India. She studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. She is involved with issues related to public health, nutrition and right to food as a researcher and activist. She has worked in Andhra Pradesh on a project mobilizing communities for better maternal and child health and nutrition, supported by a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation (administered by Population Council). She was later affiliated with the Office of Commissioners to the Supreme Court (on the Right to Food) and has been part of a number of research and implementation projects with the Centre for Equity Studies (CES) and Public Health Resource Network (PHRN), New Delhi, India.