ABSTRACT
Working in a high-income setting, constipation can seem simple and straightforward; physicians discuss hydration, dietary modification, and exercise with their patients. The view of constipation changes in resource-denied settings. This case study takes place at a community health center that trains and employs Village Health Workers to serve villagers in some of the most impoverished communities in rural Central India. In these communities, it is clear that constipation is closely related to issues of extreme poverty, migratory labor, normalization of marginalization, and gender-based violence. This chapter builds on these insights to present constipation as a health problem that provides a window to social and structural causes of ill health. This is made visible through a structural competency analysis as a way to think through and act on the health impacts of constipation, including their deeper roots. This chapter explores the ways in which the entanglement of politics and healthcare can influence—and even cause—disease, as well as different levels of interventions for addressing these harms.
