Social Networks in rural Tamil Nadu
Kelly Clonts
Introduction
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Kelly Clonts is an undergraduate at MIT currently studying Architecture and Urban Planning. Kelly has done research in Singapore, Jamaica, Israel, Sierra Leone, and India and worked in a variety of fields including building technology, sustainable energy, archaeology, education, architectural design, and social networking. Kelly's diverse interests in community planning and international development, as well as sociology and public health led her to the summer internship program at ICTPH. |
Social Networks and public health, bridging key concepts in developmental sciences and sociology, are reshaping the lens through which public health interventions are perceived and designed today. From the evolution of modern day epidemiology by John Snow in 1920 to the mapping of HIV transmission from ‘patient zero’, the application of social network in public health has far reaching and profound consequences. Using networks to study entire populations while superimposing key health, finance and demographic data has been envisaged to provide answers to some of the significant drivers, especially at the interface between health and finance. The ‘Sugavazhvu Guide’, who is equivalent to a community health worker with a holistic approach, will render services looking at both intra-personal and inter-personal domains of care as well as taking an ecological approach towards health care services delivery. In order to comprehend these complex dynamics within rural households, a study envisaged to understand social networks’ impact on flow of health and finance information through a set of three structured questions have been outlined. Taking the entire catchment area of approximately 12,000 people as the sample, thirteen SughaVazhvu Guides for this region will build this network among all adults within the geography.
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