The state of Kerala is often lauded by the nation for having a human development index value comparable to the developed world. However, the highly developed human capital has not yet managed to effectively end the bias against women despite having a healthy and educated female population. What this paradox means for women's health is that the state has been profoundly energetic in addressing reproductive/maternal health, which are culturally sanctioned topics of public discussion but has seriously neglected to bring about constructive discourse on diseases like breast and cervical cancers. The female body, when discussed in terms of motherhood, is sacred, but its pains and pleasures are otherwise not to be discussed openly, at which point it becomes vulgar and shameful.
In this context, qualitative breast cancer research becomes particularly challenging as it requires finding willing participants and safe spaces to talk about their experiences. Where is the ethical boundary when researchers need to ask questions that the participants cannot easily determine whether or not socially sanctioned? To what extent can the personal become political without breaching the sensitivity and confidentiality of the participants? As a woman researcher who ticks off many of the risk factors in the WHO-approved list of risk factors, how to engage with the participants without inserting the researcher's self and biases into the participant's experience? These are some of the concerns that are addressed in this paper.
Furthermore, this paper explores the possibilities of utilizing ethnography as a methodology for conducting health research that respects the participants' individual experiences without losing sight of the larger socio-cultural premises.
