Detailed research of Indian health disparities has revealed that significant differences in access to health care exist even within families, with the health and nutrition of women and girls taking a backseat to that of men and boys.
That was the picture painted Monday (Oct. 22) by Gita Sen of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India, and an adjunct lecturer on population and international health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
Sen was one of the speakers at a two-day symposium hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston University’s Global Health Initiative, and Tufts University.
The symposium, “Boston-India Symposium on Essential Interfaces in Public Health,” brought together leading academics, innovators, and key government officials to forge new relationships and discuss ways to meet India’s public health challenges.
The event, held at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston, featured a wide variety of speakers on many topics. Among the participants were HSPH Dean Barry Bloom; Maharaj Bhan, secretary to the Government of India, Department of Biotechnology of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Mary Y. Lee, associate provost at Tufts; Martha Gray, director of the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; and K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.
Gita Sen of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and the Harvard School of Public Health. 
