Author: akshay
-
Read Everything
In hindsight, this was the most important advice I got as a child. Read everything. Newspaper. Books. Textbook. Children’s magazines. Even the paper which the shopkeeper uses to wrap vegetables in. I followed it religiously for most of my life. I used to wake up and read the whole newspaper from first page to last.…
-
No, You Don’t Understand Intersectionality
Most people who use the word intersectionality understand it as “sum of various identities”. Ask them to explain what intersectionality means and they’ll go “Oh, so think about a Dalit woman, she’s doubly oppressed — through caste and through gender” This is a crude and problematic understanding of intersectionality. Firstly, it leads to what’s called…
-
The Logic of Social Justice
Today in a discussion at IPH, Meena said “we should all fight against discrimination”. And Prashanth asked “Isn’t that your personal politics? What if people don’t agree with it?” What Prashanth was really asking was “Is there any logic to the demand for social justice?” “Isn’t it just politics?” This is the same discussion I…
-
Don’t Jump On Private Healthcare
People from Koodam asked for opinion on the PIL in Supreme Court regarding fees in private hospitals (and clinical establishments act). They shared a folder collating views of various individuals, including this excellent working paper which I refer to in the text below as Oxfam publication. *** Hi Gayatri, I went through the whole folder.…
-
What is mfc?
A year ago, I asked in mfc‘s own e-group this question. You can read that long email and another long email after a week with more ideas of what mfc is here. It ends with an appreciation of what the website presently says about mfc: It is an organization which has operated for forty eight…
-
Why Medical College Work Culture is So Horrible
A number of junior residents at Jipmer have raised allegations of mental and physical harassment against the head of department, medicine, and called for action against the senior faculty.In recent complaints lodged with the Jipmer Dean (Academics), the residents alleged they were subjected to various forms of harassment at the hands of the department head…
-
How the World Should Be and How the World Is
There are two modes of thinking in society and social work. “How The World Should Be” mode, and “How The World Is” mode. There is a constant friction between these two. This friction explains hundreds of debates I’ve been in and many of my own moral dilemmas. Understanding this friction and being able to categorize…
-
What’s the Most Important Scientific Research?
Post-facto rationalization. That’s something human beings are good at. If you decide to do research in a specific field, you’ll come up with hundred ways to justify why that research is important, if not the most important. I have been listening to Ravikant Kisana the last couple of days. In the podcast episode about Chandrayaan,…
-
What Ails India’s approach to Universal Health Coverage is Elite Solutions That Have No Basis in Reality
“Poorly maintained registers of doctors”. That’s the first five words of the article What ails India’s approach to Universal Health Coverage in Times of India by four people from Vidhi Centre for Lobbying Legal Policy. Let’s talk about that after we look at universal health coverage. “Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people have…
-
Imaginary Heroes and Why A Radical Commitment to Truth is the Only Solution to Inequity
In my post about truth and Gandhi, I wrote about how a radical commitment to truth is the missing ingredient in the world today. In this post I will elaborate on that. To do this, I’ll first recap what it means, then talk about the “inverted iceberg” model of savarna mediocrity, and finally illustrate what…