Deekshya Bhal is a first semester master’s candidate for Health and Society in South Asia at Heidelberg University. She is interested in the topics of gender, death, migration, trauma, bereavement, memory and its intersection with the 21st century technological inventions. Deekshya grew up surrounded by indigenous people in the hinterlands of Odisha, India. This gave her a chance to interact with vulnerable groups right from a very early age and develop a certain sensitivity towards them. The communities in her local area are deeply imbricated with the land and forests, which they believe are sacred and essential to the health and well-being of society. Traditional medicine is deeply rooted there, and the forest provides both medicine and livelihood for communities in her hometown. Her background and upbringing are therefore key inspirations for her interest in anthropology, particularly concerning the anthropology of health and medicine and how it is imbricated in a wider society. After graduating top of her BA Sociology class, she pursed Master’s in Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from 2018-2020. While working on one of her research papers here, on “The Commercialization of Motherhood and Commodification of Babies” that looked particularly at commercial surrogacy in India, and its transnational linkages, she realized her true calling and decided to join the MAHASSA program. The firsthand experience of working with a lot of local NGOs over the years has given her a diverse understanding of inequalities and astute insights into cultures of the marginal communities and their trauma. Her last stint with NISTA gave her a chance to work closely with tribal women and mothers on a number of health projects. She is a very passionate advocate of equal rights for all of humankind and intends to pursue a career in international development in the health sector after completion of her degree
