Honor, violence, and children: A systematic scoping review of global evidence.

BACKGROUND: Although the harmful effects of honor-based violence (HBV) against women have been well documented, less is known about how HBV affects children and adolescents. AIMS: 1) To describe the contexts, research methods and populations included in research on HBV and children; 2) to outline conceptual and methodological approaches, including definitions of honor; 3) to describe how honor-based practices affect children's experiences of violence. METHODS: We searched seven electronic databases using search terms for honor, violence and children which resulted in 7122 unique records. 468 records were selected for full-text review. Articles reporting findings on the effects of honor-based harm or violence against children were included in the final sample for data extraction. We conducted bibliometric and thematic analyses of extracted data. RESULTS: In total, 101 articles were included. Most studies were published after 2007, conducted in Europe (n = 46) or in North America (n = 21), and most used qualitative methods (n = 58) followed by quantitative methods (n = 32). In most studies (n = 74) children, especially girls, were included as experiencing HBV or being a victim of homicide related to HBV. A smaller sample of studies (n = 24) included children, especially boys, as perpetrators of HBV. Studies documented the following effects of HBV on children: violence; family rejection and control; homicide or honor killing; forced/early marriage; female genital cutting; gang membership/violence; hymen exam or reconstruction; sex work, or suicide. RECOMMENDATIONS: Further research on HBV should be child and youth centered, situated in the Global South, engage with and interview young people directly, and offer recommendations for action.

Medicalisation and Ayurveda: the need for pluralism and balance in global health systems.

The current global economic and biomedical perspectives contribute content, strategy, and values to global health systems, like objectification and competition, which encourage the medicalisation of the system. Medicalisation overlooks our interdependence with other beings, the environment and biosphere. In contrast, ancient health traditions like Ayurveda, derived from Asian cultures, provide knowledge of the human being's composition of five basic states of nature that need to remain in constant equilibrium to ensure health (Svasthya). Asian health traditions encourage values like vulnerability and respect to facilitate an inherent relationship with the internal and external environment. The recent pandemic has revealed the fragile vulnerability in this nexus and the consequences to human health and well-being when that equilibrium is disturbed. Serious deliberations and discussions are needed between the modern economic and the Asian frameworks for healthcare which result in two different approaches to health and to health systems. This debate may encourage the creation of a philosophy and structure for a new global pluralistic health system more aligned to nature. These deliberations need to encourage the discussion of Svasthya (health), Soukhya (sustainable happiness), and the inner and outer ecological landscapes experienced by human beings that can be understood through mindful self-awareness. Global health systems need to evolve in the direction of a different, pluralistic philosophy of health that encourages a 'population's self-reliance in health' through an intimate and integrated connection with nature.

'Population self-reliance in health' and COVID-19: The need for a 4th tier in the health system.

The COVID-19 pandemic is straining health systems globally. The current international biomedical focus for disease control and policies fails to include the resource of a population's capacity to be self-reliant in its health care practices. The ancient wisdom of Ayurveda ('the knowledge of life') and Local Health Traditions (LHTs) in India understand that health is about Svasthya, 'being rooted within'; a concept that includes the relationship and balance between the individual, their families, communities and the environment in creating and maintaining their own health. This 'population self-reliance in health' is the focus of the 4th tier in the health system which honours and respects an individual's capacity for self-care and their inherent responsibility to the health system and its values. It encourages the inclusion of this knowledge in the creation of health systems and in the policies that direct them. Research and practice into the 4th tier will provide health systems and policy information into how communities are managing the COVID-19 epidemic. These insights will help in the creation of future health systems that are better aligned to the 'self-reliance in health' of individuals and their communities.

Ayurveda and medicalisation today: The loss of important knowledge and practice in health?

Ayurveda translates as 'life science'. Its knowledge is not limited to medicine, cure or therapy and is for laypersons, households, communities, as well as for physicians. Throughout its evolutionary history, Ayurveda and Local Health Traditions have reciprocally influenced each other. In modern times, the influence of biomedicine on Ayurveda is leading to its medicalisation. Over the past century, the introduction and perspective of biomedicine into India has made the human being an object for positive knowledge, a being who can be understood with scientific reason and can be governed and controlled through medical knowledge. This paper explores how this shift towards medicalisation is affecting the knowledge, teaching, and practice of Ayurveda. It examines the impact and contribution of processes like standardisation, professionalisation, bio-medicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation on Ayurveda education, knowledge, practice and policies. To maintain health and wellbeing Ayurveda's ancient knowledge and practice needs to be applied at individual, community and health care provider levels and not be limited to the medical system. The current over medicalisation of society is a potential threat to human health and well-being. Ayurveda and LHT knowledge can provide essential teachings and practices to counter-balance this current trend through encouraging a population's self-reliance in its health.