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Fifty years ago this week, Gaura Devi, an ordinary woman from a nondescript village in India, hugged a tree, using her body as a shield to stop the tree from being cut down. Little did she know that this simple act of defiance would be a seminal moment in the history of India and the world. Or that Reni village, where she lived, would come to be recognised as the fountainhead of the Chipko environmental movement. What the foot soldiers of Chipko wanted was an acknowledgement of their Indigenous rights to access forest resources that were crucial for their survival. What they got instead was a national law and a ministry populated by a new breed of power brokers — who, in the years to come, would decide at times that habitat preservation is possible only by keeping local communities out.

Background: Care provision received renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as several healthcare providers vied for the coveted title of ​“frontline warrior” while they struggled to provide care efficiently under varying health system constraints. While several studies on the health workforce during the pandemic highlighted their difficulties, there is little reflection on what ​“care” or ​“caring” itself meant specifically for community health workers (CHWs) as they navigated different community and health systems settings. The study aimed to examine CHWs’ caregiving experiences during the pandemic.

Methods: Twenty narrative interviews with CHWs including ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) and ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) were conducted in different states between July and December 2020.

Results: Our findings highlight the moral, affectual, and relational dimensions of care in the CHWs’ engagement with their routine and Covid-19 related services, as well as the ​“technical” aspects of it. In this article, we argue that these two aspects are, in fact, enmeshed in complex ways. CHWs extend this moral understanding not just to their work, but also to their relationship with the health system and the government, as they express a deep sense of neglect and the lack of ​“being cared for” by the health system.

Conclusion: CHWs’ experiences demand a more nuanced understanding of the ethics of care or caring that challenges the binaries between the ​“technical” and moral aspects of care.

पाठशाला भीतर और बाहर  के उन्नीसवें अंक के ज़्यादातर लेख पुस्तकालय और भाषा की पढ़ाई के विविध पहलुओं पर केन्द्रित हैं। इन लेखों में, अच्छी किताबों से ही अच्छे स्कूल पुस्तकालय की कल्पना साकार होती है व पुस्तकालय को जीवन्त और सक्रिय कैसे बनाया जाए, जैसे विषयों को उठाया गया है। एक लेख लोकतंत्र में संवाद की संस्कृति बनाने व इसके महत्त्व के बारे में है। साक्षात्कार में चिन्तनशील शिक्षक और इनकी रचनात्मकता के विकास की प्रक्रिया पर चर्चा की गई है। संवाद में, संवैधानिक मूल्य बन्धुता के भाव को विकसित करने के लिए स्कूली स्तर पर किए जाने वाले प्रयासों के बारे में अनुभवपरक विचार रखे गए हैं।

The mental health discourse in India has been primarily viewed through a biomedical lens that often overlooks the cultural context and social inequalities. To ensure equitable access to preventive, promotive, curative, and rehabilitative mental healthcare, India needs practitioners who combine a social perspective with an empathetic approach. To address this need, we designed a course titled ​“Critical Perspectives on Mental Health” that aims to introduce the relevant perspectives and community-based approaches to mental health. In this article, we share our reflections on designing this course and facilitating it in the form of a post-graduation programme.