“Now is a wealth hideous and everyone is sick”: repercussions of agri¬cultural modernization on peasant women health in Chapada do Apodi/ CE (Brazil)

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the impact of agricultural modernization on the health of rural women living in Chapada do Apodi -CE, impacted by deterritorialization romoted by the implementation of public policies for irrigation and irrigated fruit growing companies. From theoretical approaches that include women as the protagonists of knowledge and feminist methodologies, appreciated the knowledge situated women, expressed through life stories, focusing on nuances of environmental conflict from a health perspective. As a result of this process it can be said that women are experiencing situations of inequality and increasing vulnerability, by imposing modern complex risks, unknown in traditional culture of rural populations. It is revealed the State’s role in the promotion of deterritorialization, the inadequacy of public policies responsible for safeguarding rights such as health, labor and the environment, resulting in the concealment
of the risks and damages. In this context, new health needs are identified and women point directions for the understanding of life processes in their dynamics and complexity to overcome the inequalities socially produced.