What constitutes evidence in human rights-based approaches to health? Learning from lived experiences of maternal and sexual reproductive health

The impact of human rights interventions on health outcomes is complex, multiple, and difficult to ascertain in the conventional sense of cause and effect. Existing approaches based on probable (experimental and statistical) conclusions from evidence are limited in their ability to capture the impact of rights-based transformations in health. This paper argues that a focus on plausible conclusions from evidence enables policy makers and researchers to take into account the effects of a co-occurrence of multiple factors connected with human rights, including the significant role of “context” and power. Drawing on a subject-near and interpretive (in other words, with regard to meaning) perspective that focuses on the lived experiences of human rights-based interventions, the paper suggests that policy makers and researchers are best served by evidence arrived at through plausible, observational modes of ascertaining impact. Through an examination of what human rights-based interventions mean, based on the experience of their operationalization on the ground in culturally specific maternal and reproductive health care contexts, this paper contributes to an emerging scholarship that seeks to pluralize the concept of evidence and to address the methodological challenges posed by heterogeneous forms of evidence in the context of human rights as applied to health

Challenges in ‘translating’ human rights: perceptions and practices of civil society actors in western India

Rights-based approaches have become prevalent in development rhetoric and programmes in countries such as India, yet little is known about their impact on development practice on the ground. There is limited understanding of how rights work is carried out in India, a country that has a long history of indigenous rights discourse and a strong tradition of civil society activism on rights issues. In this article, we examine the multiple ways in which members of civil society organizations (CSOs) working on rights issues in the state of Rajasthan understand and operationalize rights in their development programmes. As a result of diverse ‘translations’ of rights, local development actors are required to bridge the gaps between the rhetoric of policy and the reality of access to healthcare on the ground. This article illustrates that drawing on community-near traditions of activism and mobilization, such ‘translation work’ is most effective when it responds to local exigencies and needs in ways that the universal language of human rights and state development discourse leave unmet and unacknowledged. In the process, civil society actors use rights-based development frameworks instrumentally as well as normatively to deepen community awareness and participation on the one hand, and to fix the state in its role as duty bearer of health rights, on the other hand. In their engagement with rights, CSO members work to reinforce but also challenge neoliberal modes of health governance

Bodily rights and collective claims: the work of legal activists in interpreting reproductive and maternal rights in India

This article engages with anthropological approaches to the study of global human rights discourses around reproductive and maternal health in India. Whether couched in the language of human rights or of other social justice frameworks, different forms of claims-making in India exist in tandem and correspond to particular traditions of activism and struggle. Universal reproductive rights language remains a discourse aimed at the state in India, where the primary purpose is to demand greater accountability in the domain of policy and governance. Outside of these spheres, other languages are strategically chosen by activists for their greater resonance in addressing individual cases of women claiming reproductive violence within the context of the family as well as localized histories of feminist struggle and social justice. In focusing on the work of legal activists and the discourses which inform their interventions, this article seeks to understand how the language of reproductive rights is used in the context of India, not as a `Western import' which is adapted to local contexts, but rather as one of multiple frameworks of claims-making drawn upon by legal activists emerging from distinct histories of struggle for gender equality and social justice

Women's Migration, Urban Poverty and Child Health in Rajasthan

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Dialling in: Reflections on Telephone Interviews in light of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Telephone interviews have always been the next best option to face-to-face interviews which has affected researchers’ perceptions of its use in qualitative research. This article considers the challenges against the use of telephone interviews as a primary source of data collection posed by the ‘gold standard’ - face-to-face interviews. With the rapid development of technology in recent years and an increased interest in virtual research, the viability of telephone interviews as a mode of data collection may be forgotten. Thereon, the methodological strengths of telephone interviews will be explored by comparing it to face-to-face interviews and considering its use in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. I will be drawing from my legal research study on the role of the education system in informing children aged 7-14 of their criminal responsibility in schools, to provide reflections, examples and make my argument

On Some Gastrocotyline (Monogenoidean) Parasites of Indian Clupeoid Fishes, Including Three New Genera

Seven species of monogenetic trematodes, including the two genotypes, Engraulicola forcepopenis George, 1961 and Engrauliscobina thrissocles (Tripathi, 1959), are recorded. All seven of these atypical gastrocotylines belong to the subfamily Gastrocotylinae s.s. and are parasitic on clupeoid fishes. Four species in the present collection, viz., Engraulicola microph aryngella sp. n., Engraulixenus malabaricus gen. et sp. n., Engrauliphila grex gen. et sp. n., and Engrauliscobina triaptella sp. n., were collected from fishes of the family Engraulidae, while an entirely new type, Pellonicola elongata gen. et sp. n., was obtained from Clupeidae. The tendency to unilateral inhibition of the clamp rows is incomplete in all these atypical gastrocotylines, and all are characterised primarily by their clamp structure. Diagnostic characters, with special reference to the haptor (its adhesive units or clamps and anchors), the male terminalia, vaginal complex, and other salient features which appear to be taxonomically important, are given for each species

Shrimp farming - a status review

The ever increasing demand for shrimp and the resultant pressure on the fishery has led to stagnation or fluctuation in the yield in recent years. Research and development activities carried out by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute aimed at improving shrimp production, harnessing both capture and culture fisheries, have yielded wealth of information over the past decades. The finding that the yield from the traditional practices of shrimp farming prevalent in India is only a fraction of what is actually possible from such fields has led to the proposition of the improved technology of selective farming of only the commercially more important species of shrimps ensuring improvement in the quality, quantity and profitability. Research undertaken by the CMFRI on culture system, shrimp seed resources including hatchery production of seed, shrimp feed formulation and farming trials have been helpful in developing suitable package of practices for the sustainable farming of shrimps. Extension machinery including publications, training programmes at operator, trainer level and field level extension programmes have been instrumental in taking the know how to the user community. Assessment of the prospects and problems of shrimp culture development has also been accomplished

Effects of the Piscicides, Mahua Oil Cake and Croton Seed on the Prawn Culture System

The present research programme envisages a comparative study of the effects of two piscicides of plant origin, viz., mahua oil cake, a derivative from the plant fig Iatifolia and croton seed, a product from the plant Croton tiglium. Although some reports on the effects of mahua oil cake and croton seed on fresh water pond culture systems are available, information on their effect on brackishwater culture systems are rather scanty This was the guiding principle for launching the present study It is hoped that the findings will enable aquaculturists to make use of the piscicides in a more rational and efficient way, and will go a long way towards realising the maximum return from culture systems without hampering the environment. The thesis is presented in seven chapters such as Introduction, Review of literature, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Summary and Bibliograph

Shrimp farming: problems and prospects- Winter School on Recent Advances in Breeding and Larviculture of Marine Finfish and Shellfish

Shrimps accounting for over 20% of the global trade in fish and fishery products and commanding a premium value have also been the mainstay of Indian marine products export trade. Frozen shrimp continued to be the largest item exported in terms of value with 59.02% of the total value of export during 2005-06. Around 60% of the volume of frozen shrimp exported was contributed by aquaculture. Shrimp farming provides direct employment to about 0.3 million people and ancillary units provide employment to 0.6-0.7 million people