ANTHROPOLOGY & HEALTH ISSUES

It has been frequently reported by the medical practitioners and public health workers that very often people do not utilize the medical and preventive facilities available to them. Social and economic factors are generally accepted as highly important in the multiple causation of disease. Therefore, health workers must come to understand such factors if they are to deal effectively in both primary prevention and cure of disease and other health disorders. Urbanization and changing environmental situations have also created various health problems. Again, in the contemporary world, one cannot deny the various health hazards associated with different jobs. These are the emerging health challenges based on changing socio-cultural and economic situation. One will have to address and examine some of these new health problems. Besides this, knowledge and documentation of traditional medicine is also equally important. Many such issues have been examined in the present volume.
These well-researched papers cover wide range of issues related to health. There are three sections in the present volume. Section I deals with ‘Health Issues and Human Rights’. Section II is on ‘Occupation and Health: The Challenges’ and the last section is on ‘Changing Health Scenario: Opportunities and Challenges’.
It is expected that the findings of these research papers would create interest among health administrators and scholars/researchers of anthropology, sociology and medical science.

Buddhadeb Chaudhuri was a Professor in South and S.E. Asian Studies, Dr. Ambedkar Chair Professor in Anthropology, Calcutta University. He was Senior Fellow, ICSSR; Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla; Visiting Fellow, Helsinki University; and Visiting Professor, Warsaw University, Poland. He is also the Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES).
He has conducted field research in different countries of South and South East Asia. He has published many articles in journals and edited books and around 25 books, including edited books, published from India and abroad.
Subir Biswas is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the West Bengal State University, Kolkata. Earlier he was Assistant Professor, North Bengal University, Darjeeling. His areas of interests are Anthropological Demography, Health and Bioethics. He has to his credit several research projects of University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Centre for Women Studies (NBU); UGC-IUC associateship at Indian Institute of Advanced Study; two edited books as well as several research articles of anthropological interests published in national and international journals.