Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Annu Jalais, South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

More than 300,000 Bangladeshis go abroad for medical treatment every year, mostly to India, Thailand, and Singapore. This paper explores the political and moral economies of care for Bangladeshi citizens through discourses about medical care that are circulated by patients, and promoted by hospitals and their respective governments. Hospitals in India and Singapore emphasize their highly skilled practitioners and the use of advanced medical technology, procedures, and facilities as the major draw for international patients. However, many Bangladeshi patients travel abroad not just to receive complicated procedures but also for routine pathological tests and to confirm diagnoses. Patients often mention that although some medical technologies are available in Bangladesh, they have lost faith in doctors and their use of these technologies. This paper analyzes patient narratives in order to understand their experiences and relationships with caregivers, including doctors and nurses. I argue that the motivations for medical travel include structural inequalities such as cost and access to medical treatment, but also ideas about care. I suggest that the crisis of care in Bangladesh is a symptom of the privatization and commercialization of health care in Asia.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Karen McNamara is a joint postdoctoral fellow in the Science, Technology and Society cluster at the Asia Research Institute and at Tembusu College, National University of Singapore. Her research in medical anthropology is concerned with neoliberal governance and care, the political economy of medicine, and health movements. She has studied and written about the intersection of traditional medicine, herbal remedies, and the emergence of a pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh. Her chapter, “Medicinal Plants in Bangladesh: Planting Seeds of Care in the Weeds of Neoliberalism” was recently published in the peer-reviewed volume Plants & Health: New Perspectives on the Health-Environment-Plant Nexus. Her current research examines the relationship between technology and care in the medical tourism industry in India and Singapore by focusing on the experiences of Bangladeshi patients.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. Please email to sassec@nus.edu.sg to register.