ANAKHA AJITH

EDUCATION

I hold a PhD from the Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, India. My doctoral research focused on home-based care practices in the South Indian state of Kerala. My work explores the intersection of medical anthropology, gender, and healthcare. I'm primarily interested in the areas of ethnomedicine, caregiving, and tribal health.

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science, Gender Studies, Social Sciences

Scopus Publications

Profiling Maternal and Child Health Care in the Tribal Communities of Telangana State: An Anthropological Enquiry
B. V. Sharma, B. R. Shamanna, Anakha Ajith
Oriental Anthropologist, 2023
Sexual and reproductive health aspects of tribal communities have been a matter of concern for various scholars. The present study, conducted among the tribals in one of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency areas (Mannanoor ITDA) in the state of Telangana, is primarily set to enrich the existing knowledge concerning reproductive health. The article particularly focuses on the antenatal/prenatal care, intranatal care, and reproductive outcomes among the tribal communities. The article attempts to look into the age of these women at marriage and various conceptions, the spacing between conceptions, and the outcome of the conceptions. Besides this, efforts have been made to gather data on the place of delivery, antenatal care, and birth weights of infants. The study could identify that about a quarter were low-birth-weight babies. The study also showed that overall reproductive wastage is quite significant in the tribal communities in the study area, even though the women in the area were found to be avoiding marriages at a very young age. By and large, the study reveals that maternal and child health practices are relatively satisfactory in the tribal communities in the study area.
In the Pursuit of an Identity: Analysing the Case of Male Health Care Providers
Anakha Ajith
Hse Social and Education History, 2020
Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. When the occupational roles do not conform to the gender-appropriate roles prescribed by the society, the ‘male’ nurses’ prestige and self-esteem are at risk since others recognize them neither as true nurses nor as real men. Drawing majorly from secondary sources and data gathered from an anthropological study of in-home care providers in the South Indian state of Kerala, this paper on the predicament of men in nursing throws light on the ‘spoiled identity’ they carry; the work stress, gender stereotyping, stigma and discrimination they encounter by always being suspected and their very identity and sexual orientation questioned. A note on the strategies employed by them to overcome the problems is also within the purview of this paper.
In the pursuit of an identity: Analysing the case of male health care providers
Anakha Ajith
Masculinities and Social Change, 2020
Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. When the occupational roles do not conform to the gender-appropriate roles prescribed by the society, the ‘male’ nurses’ prestige and self-esteem are at risk since others recognize them neither as true nurses nor as real men. Drawing majorly from secondary sources and data gathered from an anthropological study of in-home care providers in the South Indian state of Kerala, this paper on the predicament of men in nursing throws light on the ‘spoiled identity’ they carry; the work stress, gender stereotyping, stigma and discrimination they encounter by always being suspected and their very identity and sexual orientation questioned. A note on the strategies employed by them to overcome the problems is also within the purview of this paper.

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

Profiling Maternal and Child Health Care in the Tribal Communities of Telangana State: An Anthropological Enquiry
BV Sharma, BR Shamanna, A Ajith
The Oriental Anthropologist 23 (1), 202-215 , 2023
2023
A Study on Maternal Factors and Reproductive Outcomes among Tribal Communities of Telangana, India.
BV Sharma, TP KUMAR, A AJITH, HC BEHERA, V Prasad
Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society 58 (1) , 2023
2023
Citations: 2
In the pursuit of an identity: Analysing the case of male health care providers
A Ajith
Masculinities & Social Change 9 (3), 310-336 , 2020
2020
Citations: 12

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

In the pursuit of an identity: Analysing the case of male health care providers
A Ajith
Masculinities & Social Change 9 (3), 310-336 , 2020
2020
Citations: 12
A Study on Maternal Factors and Reproductive Outcomes among Tribal Communities of Telangana, India.
BV Sharma, TP KUMAR, A AJITH, HC BEHERA, V Prasad
Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society 58 (1) , 2023
2023
Citations: 2
Profiling Maternal and Child Health Care in the Tribal Communities of Telangana State: An Anthropological Enquiry
BV Sharma, BR Shamanna, A Ajith
The Oriental Anthropologist 23 (1), 202-215 , 2023
2023

Publications

Ajith, A. (2018). Building Empathetic Interactions with Tribals. In B. V. Sharma et al. (Eds.), Sourcebook forFunctionaries working in Tribal Areas (Vol. 1, pp. 36–49). Centre for Innovations in Public Systems, ASCI,Hyderabad.
Ajith, A. (2018). Cultural Context of Health and Illness. In B. V. Sharma et al. (Eds.), Sourcebook forFunctionaries working in Tribal Areas (Vol. 4, pp. 49–60). Centre for Innovations in Public Systems, ASCI,Hyderabad.
Ajith, A. & Ajith, A. (2018) A Comparative Exegesis of Motherhood in Modern India through Select Films. In
Nazia Hasan (Ed.) Interrupting the Monologue: The Poetics and Politics of Motherhood, KITAABInternational, Singapore.
Ajith, A. (2016). Illness among the Gonds: Therapeutic Care and Therapy Management. In K. E. Rajpramukh &Jaikishan, G. (Eds.), Dimensions of Tribal Health in India: Retrospect and Prospect (pp. 54–61), SwastikPublications, Delhi.