Community Health Specialist in sustainable and inclusive growth and development with extensive experience in the ESCAP region. Proven understanding of development finance. Analysis of transactional reciprocity, informal labor markets, small scale enterprise, care-work and social protection in relation to PWD households.
This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family mem... more This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family members in rural Maharashtra, India, explores the inclusion of disabled members within village society. With limited access to healthcare, disability is seen as an unavoidable aspect of life. The aim of this research is to provide evidence that disabled people in rural areas are not usually isolated and abused or perceived as burdensome to their family members, contradicting generalized assumptions that often inform development literature. I suggest that generalized stigma of these disabilities is likely created during society's development from agrarian to industrial, in which disabled members' productivity levels do not increase with society's greater efficiency, thereby creating social fracturing due to perceived inability to participate economically. Stigma and poor adaptation to disability status are linked to inability to ascribe to socially acceptable roles. However, if a disabled person is able to marry and work to the maximum of their ability, they maintain a self-actualized identity. I term this identity the "socially-abled self," in which their selfhood is defined by their familial roles and their economic contributions to the household. Stigmatized disabilities are generally limited to leprosy, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other severely socially limiting disabilities such as deaf-blindness and schizophrenia who have lives defined by a stigma triangle, in which inability to fulfill societal expectations of normalcy fears of contagion and ostracism feed each other cyclically. Therefore, inclusive development projects aimed at integrating disabled members should pay attention to existing familial support and focus beyond medical rehabilitation and even education, but extend to integrating stigmatized villagers economically, whether the stigma's source is gender, caste, or disability. By giving them an integral economic position in the society, the community learns to respect them by their trade, thereby allowing them to fully participate in community activities.
Though Western biomedicine rarely acknowledges it, pain can be a positive experience. In unrelate... more Though Western biomedicine rarely acknowledges it, pain can be a positive experience. In unrelated cultures across the globe, pain has been used to catalyze transcendence, a biologically measurable spiritual phenomenon. Like intense meditative thought, pain can provide the focus necessary to disassociate from the self and feel connected to God, a cross-cultural phenomenon that is physically visible through decreased blood flow to the parietal lobe. This may explain why patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome report disassociation from the body during times of incredible pain, as well as why patients turn to God during and following bodily trauma (Reedjik et al. 2008).
This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family mem... more This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family members in rural Maharashtra, India, explores the inclusion of disabled members within village society. With limited access to healthcare, disability is seen as an unavoidable aspect of life. The aim of this research is to provide evidence that disabled people in rural areas are not usually isolated and abused or perceived as burdensome to their family members, contradicting generalized assumptions that often inform development literature. I suggest that generalized stigma of these disabilities is likely created during society’s development from agrarian to industrial, in which disabled members’ productivity levels do not increase with society’s greater efficiency, thereby creating social fracturing due to perceived inability to participate economically. Stigma and poor adaptation to disability status are linked to inability to ascribe to socially acceptable roles. However, if a disabled pe...
Crime, Criminality and Injustice: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Revelations, 2023
In developing the themes of poverty and disability, Chapter Seven of this edited collection begin... more In developing the themes of poverty and disability, Chapter Seven of this edited collection begins with a reflective discussion of disabled people and ‘begging’. Of key significance, argues the author, is that the social conception that labels disabled people as being unable to be productive. Disabled people are thus considered to need and deserve charity. And the very stigma that bars disabled people from employment feeds the need to give. Indeed, disabled people are assumed to lack productivity by nature of their bodies. Henceforth, they are not guilty of being ‘lazy’ or for not working. Economically disadvantaged by this productivity stigma, disabled people often have to resort to begging instead of wage labour. Begging on the street means a passer-by may donate in exchange for the feeling of having contributed and met their social obligation. Consequently, this population is sustained by neither wage labour nor government-sanctioned social protections. As such, workers give, and beggars beg. Supply equals demand. Individuals often respond to street-beggars through the lenses of pity and contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging account for this. The financial incentives to spend often rely on public pity. Criminal law surrounding street-begging often exists to manage and distribute public contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging will be interrogated for their role in explaining the persistence of this livelihood. All-in-all, however, the chapter argues that ‘begging’ is a livelihood produced by a combination of social fracturing resulting in class stratification and poverty. Urbanisation increases overall material wealth, restructures society and creates important new schools of philosophy, but the social impact of urbanisation is profound and unjust.
This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family mem... more This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family members in rural Maharashtra, India, explores the inclusion of disabled members within village society. With limited access to healthcare, disability is seen as an unavoidable aspect of life. The aim of this research is to provide evidence that disabled people in rural areas are not usually isolated and abused or perceived as burdensome to their family members, contradicting generalized assumptions that often inform development literature. I suggest that generalized stigma of these disabilities is likely created during society's development from agrarian to industrial, in which disabled members' productivity levels do not increase with society's greater efficiency, thereby creating social fracturing due to perceived inability to participate economically. Stigma and poor adaptation to disability status are linked to inability to ascribe to socially acceptable roles. However, if a disabled person is able to marry and work to the maximum of their ability, they maintain a self-actualized identity. I term this identity the "socially-abled self," in which their selfhood is defined by their familial roles and their economic contributions to the household. Stigmatized disabilities are generally limited to leprosy, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other severely socially limiting disabilities such as deaf-blindness and schizophrenia who have lives defined by a stigma triangle, in which inability to fulfill societal expectations of normalcy fears of contagion and ostracism feed each other cyclically. Therefore, inclusive development projects aimed at integrating disabled members should pay attention to existing familial support and focus beyond medical rehabilitation and even education, but extend to integrating stigmatized villagers economically, whether the stigma's source is gender, caste, or disability. By giving them an integral economic position in the society, the community learns to respect them by their trade, thereby allowing them to fully participate in community activities.
Though Western biomedicine rarely acknowledges it, pain can be a positive experience. In unrelate... more Though Western biomedicine rarely acknowledges it, pain can be a positive experience. In unrelated cultures across the globe, pain has been used to catalyze transcendence, a biologically measurable spiritual phenomenon. Like intense meditative thought, pain can provide the focus necessary to disassociate from the self and feel connected to God, a cross-cultural phenomenon that is physically visible through decreased blood flow to the parietal lobe. This may explain why patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome report disassociation from the body during times of incredible pain, as well as why patients turn to God during and following bodily trauma (Reedjik et al. 2008).
This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family mem... more This ethnographic qualitative research through interviews of disabled people and their family members in rural Maharashtra, India, explores the inclusion of disabled members within village society. With limited access to healthcare, disability is seen as an unavoidable aspect of life. The aim of this research is to provide evidence that disabled people in rural areas are not usually isolated and abused or perceived as burdensome to their family members, contradicting generalized assumptions that often inform development literature. I suggest that generalized stigma of these disabilities is likely created during society’s development from agrarian to industrial, in which disabled members’ productivity levels do not increase with society’s greater efficiency, thereby creating social fracturing due to perceived inability to participate economically. Stigma and poor adaptation to disability status are linked to inability to ascribe to socially acceptable roles. However, if a disabled pe...
Crime, Criminality and Injustice: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Revelations, 2023
In developing the themes of poverty and disability, Chapter Seven of this edited collection begin... more In developing the themes of poverty and disability, Chapter Seven of this edited collection begins with a reflective discussion of disabled people and ‘begging’. Of key significance, argues the author, is that the social conception that labels disabled people as being unable to be productive. Disabled people are thus considered to need and deserve charity. And the very stigma that bars disabled people from employment feeds the need to give. Indeed, disabled people are assumed to lack productivity by nature of their bodies. Henceforth, they are not guilty of being ‘lazy’ or for not working. Economically disadvantaged by this productivity stigma, disabled people often have to resort to begging instead of wage labour. Begging on the street means a passer-by may donate in exchange for the feeling of having contributed and met their social obligation. Consequently, this population is sustained by neither wage labour nor government-sanctioned social protections. As such, workers give, and beggars beg. Supply equals demand. Individuals often respond to street-beggars through the lenses of pity and contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging account for this. The financial incentives to spend often rely on public pity. Criminal law surrounding street-begging often exists to manage and distribute public contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging will be interrogated for their role in explaining the persistence of this livelihood. All-in-all, however, the chapter argues that ‘begging’ is a livelihood produced by a combination of social fracturing resulting in class stratification and poverty. Urbanisation increases overall material wealth, restructures society and creates important new schools of philosophy, but the social impact of urbanisation is profound and unjust.
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Individuals often respond to street-beggars through the lenses of pity and contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging account for this. The financial incentives to spend often rely on public pity. Criminal law surrounding street-begging often exists to manage and distribute public contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging will be interrogated for their role in explaining the persistence of this livelihood. All-in-all, however, the chapter argues that ‘begging’ is a livelihood produced by a combination of social fracturing resulting in class stratification and poverty. Urbanisation increases overall material wealth, restructures society and creates important new schools of philosophy, but the social impact of urbanisation is profound and unjust.
Individuals often respond to street-beggars through the lenses of pity and contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging account for this. The financial incentives to spend often rely on public pity. Criminal law surrounding street-begging often exists to manage and distribute public contempt. Institutions surrounding street-begging will be interrogated for their role in explaining the persistence of this livelihood. All-in-all, however, the chapter argues that ‘begging’ is a livelihood produced by a combination of social fracturing resulting in class stratification and poverty. Urbanisation increases overall material wealth, restructures society and creates important new schools of philosophy, but the social impact of urbanisation is profound and unjust.