Seminar on ‘Medical Anthropology and Public Health in Sindh’ was organized by Anthropology and Archaeology Department, SU in collaboration with Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, AKU, Matiari and Department of Community Medicine & Public Health Sciences, LUMHS
From Our Correspondent
Jamshoro
The experts at a seminar on ‘Medical Anthropology and Public Health in Sindh: Challenges, Opportunities and Collaborative Research Agenda’ called for paradigm shift in existing biomedical and clinical model of health and suggested focusing on social, political and economic determinants of public health.
The seminar was organized by Anthropology and Archaeology Department of Sindh University in collaboration with the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Agha Khan University (AKU), Matiari and the Department of Community Medicine & Public Health Sciences, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro Sindh here on Thursday.
The seminar was aimed to promote collaborative research agenda in the fields of Medical Anthropology, Community Medicine and Public Health in order to effectively resolve the health issues in Sindh.
Prof Dr. Khalida Naz Memon, Dean Faculty of Community Medicine & Public Health Sciences, LUMHS, Jamshoro was the keynote speaker who spoke on ‘Crossroads of Public Health and Anthropology: The game changers in the current era of public health emergencies’ and underlined the importance of anthropology in community public health. “Our main focus in community public health is always on the causes of their health issues,” she told.
Anthropologist and Lecturer at the host department Rafique Ahmed Wassan, who moderated the event, presented the concept paper and elaborated the social model of health and how this model gets strong support through anthropology because anthropology is study of culture, behavior and human society.
The participants of the seminar agreed on research agenda in five major areas and framed some recommendations for the policy-making authorities that include initiating community-based health research projects; community-based field visits and exchange of the students of Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Sindh University Jamshoro and Department of Community Medicine and Public Health; producing academic publications; establishment of community-based research lab in order to support and ensure the participation of students; introducing anthropology teaching courses and exchange of visiting Faculty members; introducing internships for the students and exchange and dissemination of ideas related to health issues on LUMHS FM community health radio.
The anthropologists and health professionals were of the view that in the current surge of transdisciplinary academic interest, the tripartite disciplinary perspective and scope of Anthropology i.e., biological/physical, social science and humanities deserved widespread acclaim among the intellectual and scholarly communities.
“The distinct application and use of anthropological methods and knowledge production in the form of ethnography and community-based research approaches have offered an in-depth understanding of the complex nature of our society“, they said.
They further stated that ‘Significantly, the advocacy of applied, engaged, activist and critical intellectual frameworks have taken on a renewed spirit to contribute to addressing the human sufferings of Sindhi society in this rapidly changing i.e., reliance on technology and challenging times i.e., COVID-19 pandemic.’
They said, “In the current crucial times of global health crisis and Covid-19 pandemic, we strongly realize to capitalize and uphold collaborative ideas and effort. In that direction, medical anthropology’s ever increasing importance and potential could be a meaningful way out.”
They said that the three participating institutions, the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology SU Jamshoro, Faculty of Community Medicine LUMHS and AKU share the common interest that is teaching and evidence based community research and interventions, which itself is indicative of the strong prospects of producing collaborative work to address the issues of healthcare and community health at large, and move forward towards the mainstreaming of interdisciplinary and collaborative research agenda and framework.”
“So, our primary objective is to jointly introduce and present the shared academic and community research based learning interest and practices to address the problems of community/public health in Sindh. Secondly, we aim to prioritize and mainstream medical anthropology (social sciences and humanities) informed research approaches and perspectives to health problems that broadly include the use of ethnography, qualitative research in health, community/social model of health, public and peoples’ health that give impetus to peoples’ right to health,” they concluded.
Since the purpose of organizing this seminar was to draw attention to the interdisciplinary and collaborative academic and research endeavor in the fields of Anthropology, Community Medicine and Public Health, this initiative brought together Anthropologists, Public Health Experts, Community Development Advocates, and Interdisciplinary Researchers to contextualize and solve real-world problems in the field of community health in Sindh and concrete a collaborative research agenda.
During the presentation session, following presentations were made:
“How Students Negotiated a University Closure: The Impacts of Covid-19 stress on Undergraduate Students of the University of Sindh during Online Education” – Dr. Abdul Razaque Channa (Assistant Professor) and Ms. Ambreen Soomro (Lecturer) Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro; “Practicing the Public Health: From classrooms to Community” – Dr. Gulzar Usman Associate Professor, Faculty of Community Medicine and Public Health Sciences, LUMHS Jamshoro; “Role of Medical Anthropology in Public Health: Current community health interventions” by Yaqub Wasan, Senior Manager Research, Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, The Aga Khan University, Karachi.
Earlier, Prof. Dr. Wazeer Ali Baloch, Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences, SU Jamshoro gave welcome address while note of thanks was offered by Mr. Manik Mustafa Shar, In-Charge Chairman, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro.
The entire proceedings of the seminar were broadcast live by Producer Mushtaque Bhatti from the LUMHS FM Radio.
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