Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

We warmly invite you to the first BERSAS Lecture this summer!

Eating Healthy Food in Urban India:

The Role of Digital Technology

Dr. Rituparna Patgiri

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between food habits and health is back in the spotlight, particularly in the urban Indian context. There are several prescriptions for food from medical experts, health practitioners, nutritional experts and even laypeople. There is a lot of talk about how a healthy lifestyle is important to fight the virus and its consequences. The emphasis on eating healthy is not new. Indian food practices have been traditionally governed by health-related rules and regulations. What is, however, new, is how the digital sphere is used by practitioners to disseminate information about diet and health. This knowledge is then used by the consumers to facilitate their ideas about food and health, often making the boundaries between the credible and the fake porous. The importance of the digital in health is also further increased by the state push towards the digitalization of health services. Thus, by using data from Delhi, this paper looks at how ideas of healthy food are constructed with the help of digital technology in primarily the urban context. 

Dr. Rituparna Patgiri is

Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati

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