Seasoned Veterans of the Waiting Room: Stories from Working-Class Neighbourhoods of Delhi, India

Taking seriously the idea that liberation medicine should include, or even start from, the perspectives of those who are at the margins of the current medical system, this article draws on the perspective provided by a group of working-class writers who inhabit these margins, through an ethnographic story about medical failure and radical care. The story follows a middle-aged couple, Farid and Shakeela, residents of a working-class neighbourhood in Delhi, who travel to one of the largest public hospitals in the city for the delivery of their baby. Upon arrival, they encounter a hospital as a separate world, a space with its own rules and language, with maze-like pathways. Through the experiences of this couple, this article sheds light on some questions that help to theorize liberation medicine: In a medical system which is vast and overwhelming, does a labourer have any agency in finding a toe hold, or are they completely helpless and dependent on doctors, nurses, and technicians? Doctors diagnose an illness; however, who defines sickness? What makes a daily wage earner determine the condition of their health? Through reading this story, as well as the pedagogy of its writers, this article sheds light on the significance of networks of care which are easy to overlook whilst also calling for perfect institutions.