At the margins of biomedicine_ the ambiguous position of ‘Registered Medical Practitioners’ in rural Indian healthcare.pdf (118.2 kB)
At the margins of biomedicine: the ambiguous position of ‘Registered Medical Practitioners’ in rural Indian healthcare
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 20:09 authored by Papreen NaharPapreen Nahar, Nanda Kishore Kannuri, Sitamma Mikkilineni, G V S Murthy, Peter PhillimoreThis analysis challenges a tendency in public health and the social sciences to associate India's medical pluralism with a distinction between biomedicine, as a homogeneous entity, and its non-biomedical ‘others’. We argue that this overdrawn dichotomy obscures the important part played by ‘informal’ biomedical practice, an issue with salience well beyond India. Based on a qualitative study in rural Andhra Pradesh, South India, we focus on a figure little discussed in the academic literature – the Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) – who occupies a niche in the medical market-place as an informal exponent of biomedical treatment. We explore the significance of these practitioners by tracking diagnosis and treatment of one increasingly prominent medical ‘condition’, namely diabetes. The RMP, who despite the title is rarely registered, sheds light on the supposed formal-informal sector divide in India's healthcare system, and its permeability in practice. We develop our analysis by contrasting two distinctive conceptualisations of ‘informality’ in relation to the state in India – one Sarah Pinto's, the other Ananya Roy's.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Sociology of Health & IllnessISSN
0141-9889Publisher
WileyExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
39Page range
614-628Department affiliated with
- BSMS Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Brighton and Sussex Centre for Global Health Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-01-08First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-01-08First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-01-07Usage metrics
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