Ms. Nimisha Mohan

A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE FAMILY SUPPORT AND ATTITUDE TO BIRTH OF A GIRL CHILD BETWEEN MARRIED WOMEN AT SELECTED RURAL AND URBAN AREA IN BANGALORE,KARNATAKA.

SUBMITTED BY:-

MS. NIMISHA MOHAN

I YEAR M.Sc. NURSING

COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING

SOFIA COLLEGE OF NURSING

BANGALORE

RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND SCIENCE

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA

ANNEXURE - II

6. BRIEF RESUME OF INTENDED WORK

INTRODUCTION

“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”

– Jawaharlal Nehru

The worth of a civilization can be judged by the place given to women in the society, of the several factors that justify the greatness of India’s ancient culture, one of the greatest, is the honoured place given to women. Manu, the great law giver, said long ago, “Where women are honoured there reside the gods”. According to ancient Hindu scriptures, no religious rite can be performed with perfection by a man without the participation of his wife.1The mother is held as the object of affectionate reverence in Indian culture. The progress of a nation depends upon the care and skill with which mothers rear up their children. Good mothers make a good nation. Everyone has a mother as the source of his life. The mother’s lap is the first school for every child. It is his first temple; mother is his foremost god. Mother is his wealth. It is the duty of every person to recognize this truth.2

Mother Teresa has done excellent job in the field of social work. She brought the Nobel Prize for India by her selfless service to the poor, destitute and suffering people of our country in particular to the needy and handicapped people of the world in general. Today, we need the services of educated women who can tour throughout the country and help in removing human suffering. To save at least the next generation, women have to be educated in a well planned manner.1

Life on the planet is born of the woman, but her extermination from the face of the earth is underway. She is murdered in her mother’s womb. Technology has improved and nations are growing richer and powerful, but crime and cruelty against the girl child is growing evermore. A report by the UNICEF says that India kills almost 7000 girls per day by abortion. As a result of selective abortion between 35 and 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian population. Generations of women are wiped out and the society is a mute witness to this organized crime.3

The roots of discrimination against women can be traced back to ancient Hindu civilization. Although some studies9 point to the equal status and right those women enjoyed in Vedic period, (2500 BC to 1500 BC), patriarchy seems to have been the norm throughout history. In the later Aryan period after 300 BC, domination by the Brahmins (the priestly class), the growth of the caste system and other factors led to social decline.4

Generally, a girl is considered to be economically unproductive to her family and this is a major reason that accounts for negative attitude towards girls. A daughter is expensive to be married off and is one of the reasons for the indebtedness of poor families. On the other hand, sons upon the marriage, bring dowries into the family.5 An Indian maxim states: “Grooming a girl is like watering a neighbour’s garden.” It is estimated that death of young girls in India exceeds those of young boys by over 3, 00,000 each year, and every sixth infant death is especially due to gender discrimination.6

A community-based survey revealed that 16.8% of abortions were after detection that the foetus was female. As a result of sex determination and sex preselection tests leading to selective abortions of female foetuses, sex ratio of the child population has declined to 927 girls for 1000 boys. Sixty lakh female infants and girls are “missing” due to sex pre-selection techniques. It prevents the arrival of female baby at the preconception state.7

If this status continues, in near future India will have to face severe crisis on sisters and mothers for boys. Have you thought of how a boy will be born if there is no girl?

6.1 NEED FOR THE STUDY

A popular saying goes as follows: “You educate a boy, you are educating an individual; you educate a girl, you are educating a family.” The words speak volumes about the worth of a woman in the family as well as society. But the woman is shamefully discriminated against in all walks of life. This particularly is evident as regards the female child, most notably in the state of Punjab and elsewhere in the North of the country.8 the number of girls born there is fewer than 800 to every 1000 boys6. In Karnataka, the sex index ratio is falling and is currently 949 girls for every 1000 boys.9

Negative attitude towards women’s health is the major reason for high levels of perinatal mortality and morbidity including low birth weight babies. The girl child is discriminated against even when it comes to breastfeeding, supplementary nutrition and care giving. It is a systematic neglect of women’s health from the womb to the tomb.9

The study based on national survey of 2006, 1.1 million Indian households claims that nearly 5,00,000 female babies are lost in India every year because of selective abortion. It is estimated that at least 10 million female births may have been aborted in the past 20 years.10

A study conducted at St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh discovered that the ‘girl deficit’ was more common among educated families, especially in homes where the first born was a girl.10 They also found that when the first child was a boy, the number of second children was equally split among girls and boys. But if the firstborn was a girl, the number of girls born subsequently fell off precipitously. Among second children, only 759 girls were born for every 1000 boys, and among third children there were 719 girls for every 1000 boys.11

In India, the desirable is the baby boy and the unwanted is the baby girl.9This relates to a true incident that was presented from the Department of Community Health of a medical institution in south India. “Revathy, a 28 year-old lady holding her newborn baby jumped into a well early morning, just 12 days after her delivery; the baby died but the mother survived with a fracture calcaneum. This was the third girl child in the family and the husband had been threatening to remarry on this issue. There was no obvious social support to the mother, either from the family or from within the community.12

In Mumbai alone, in 1984, eighty-four percent of gynaecologists admitted that they were performing amniocentesis and there were 4000 known cases of female foeticide. In 1995, 3178 cases of female infanticide were reported in six districts of Tamil Nadu.13

Shweta P (2005) had done a study to gauge the prevalence of sex determination tests and impact of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique Act, in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh. Ten diagnostic centers were randomly chosen for the survey and 20 women were interviewed. The reasons given by most patients for undergoing the sex determination test were that ‘they wanted to avoid the problems of dowry,’ ‘finding a suitable and good match for the daughter,’ ‘the world was not a safe place for a girl to live in,’ ‘to have a balanced family,’ ‘giving birth to a male child was essential for ‘moksha,’ and ‘male child was necessary for ‘vamsha’ (continuation of their lineage).’ The number of couples going in for the test during the second and third pregnancy was found to be quite high.14

Katzev AR, Warner RL, Acock AC. (1994) had done a study on “Girls or boys? Relationship of child’s gender to marital instability,” among 1023 married women from the 1987-88 national survey of families and households. The result showed that mothers with at least one boy reported a significantly lower propensity to divorce compared to mothers with only girls. Fathers in families with boys were more engaged with their children, which was associated with mothers perceiving fewer disadvantages in the marital relationship and a lower likelihood of separation.15

During community posting, the investigator has come across several situation where married women and men were not taking care of their female children and if asked about the girl child, they would either change their face or spit. Hence the investigator was strongly motivated to identify and compare the attitude and family support towards the girl child among the married women residing in selected rural and urban area.

6.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Review of literature involves the systematic identification, location, scrutiny and summary of the written material that contains information on a research problem. An extensive review of the research and non-research material was done to gain maximum information and thus to build the foundation of the study.

SECTION-A Studies related to attitude to birth of a girl child.

SECTION-B Studies related to family support to birth of a girl child.

SECTION-A Study related to attitude to birth of a girl child.

IndiraDey, RamendraNarayanChaudhuri (2009) done a study on gender preference and its implications on reproductive behavior of mothers in a rural area of West Bengal In India, preference for son is very strong and pervasive and has been frequently cited as one of the major obstacles in reducing the national fertility level. Study depicts that 62.8% of mothers considered two to be the ideal number of children. In NFHS 2 study, it was found that 47% of the ever-married woman in India considered two to be the ideal number of children and 25% considered three to be the ideal number. The study revealed that among mothers with one living child, all the mothers with a daughter and no son desired for another child and wanted that child to be a boy. Whereas of the mothers with only one son, 8.7% did not want another child and 43.5% of them desired another son and the remaining (47.8%) wanted a daughter.16

Stacy Taber (2009) Student Participant Abraham Lincoln High School Des Moines elicited that on Women in India that the India is being criticized for its low female to male ratio, which are 960 women for every 1,000 men. This statistic reflects the lower status of women. Since male preference is adamant in India, women are more likely to be bereft of medical attention, food, and education. When women lack education, they are more likely to have more children, as children are their future financial security. --About 5,000 estimated deaths occur each year in India from supposed kitchen fires´, but the correct term is bride burning. At least one third of the population of India, most of them female, does not get adequate nourishment.16

Women's Studies &Development Centre University of Delhi(2009) assessed of Attitudinal Difference towards Girl Child in Selected Districts of North India explored that rural girls, compared to urban girls, feel less discriminated against their brothers in the family. Urban girls shoulder more household chores and are also restricted from outside exposure. But more rural girls feel the difference in rearing than urban girls with respect to love and affection given to them. More urban girls than rural feel that they have to shoulder more houses hold related responsibilities. Girls/boys work division is patriarchal in nature for both urban and rural setting. Only a small section of the respondents (with a little higher rural percentage) said that boys take up work to help their mothers. Boys are generally seen to be helping their fathers.16

Neeru Sharma, SumatiVaid and Laila Khalid (2009) had done a study on Inter-Generational Attitude (Mothers and Daughters) towards Education and Employment. They have observed that the mothers are more supportive towards their daughters and they don’t show biasness between their daughters and sons for example more than half (52%) of the mothers want their daughters educational level to be up to post graduation and 95% of the mothers would allow their daughters to select subjects of their own choice and take admission in any college, even out of the state.17

S Puri, V Bhatia, HM Swami (2007) had done a study on gender preference awareness Regarding Sex Determination among Married Women in Slums of Chandigarh´ in the age group of 20-35 years included married women belonging to poor socioeconomic groups residing in rural. The study revealed that the preference for a male higher & birth of girl child, not an occasion to celebrate has its origin in the age-old custom. Dowry is a major reason for parents to resent a daughter birth & moreover they think it is pointless to spend so much on a girl education and upbringing only to leave for another home, without repaying.18

Agarwal S (2005) had done a study in Haryana to investigate sex selective discrimination in terms of active and passive elimination of girl child in different socioeconomic conditions. Data was collected from 329 married women using face-to-face interview method. The findings showed that there existed extreme sex selective discrimination against the girl child in the society through conception to their raring and bearing.19

Walia A (2005) had done a study in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh to assess the attitude and knowledge of rural couples regarding female foeticide among 100 married couples. A print media package was prepared which was tested for effectiveness and impact. The impact was introduced to 30 couples and the post-exposure knowledge gain was assessed. The impact of the package was found to be significant on knowledge, but not on attitude. The attitude of most of the couples was highly unfavorable towards female foeticide.20

Walia A (2005) had done a similar study in Punjab to assess the attitude of families towards female foeticide among 240 respondents – 120 from farming families and 120 from non-farming families. The sample was selected by stratified random sampling method. Data was collected by a personal interview and questionnaire technique. The results showed that 44.17% of the farming families and 38% of the non-farming families had favorable attitude towards female foeticide in contrast to the above mentioned study.20

Kamala S (2003) had done a descriptive study to assess the knowledge about decreasing sex ratio and attitude towards female foeticide of 50 pregnant women attending antenatal OPD in a selected hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab. A structured questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. The findings of the study revealed that the total mean attitude score 3.5, i.e., pregnant between the age group of 21 and 30 years obtained highest mean attitude score of 84.42%, Hindus – 94.6%, women married for 1-9 years – 84.8%, pregnant women from urban area – 84.6%, women with family income more than Rs. 10,000 – 87.4%, women who watched TV – 92.6%23.21

Pattanaik D, Lobo J, Kapoor SK, Menen PSN… (2000) had done a cross-sectional study on knowledge and attitude of rural adolescent girls regarding reproductive health issues among 254 girls aged 13 to 17 years, who had attained menarche. It was found that 91.3% of the girls preferred a son.22

George S, Abel R, Miller BP… (1998) conducted a study in Tamil Nadu on all pregnant women in the 13,000 population to assess female infanticide and data was collected with the assistance of a trained village worker. The finding showed that among the 381 female births, 33 died by the age of two-and-a-half years, of which 19 were reported as infanticide. The study indicated that the pregnant women had favorable attitude towards female foeticide and infanticide.23

Daragaiah G, Kumar VKR, Dhanalakshmi N… (1996) had done a study among 300 currently married couples having one child in slum areas of Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh to determine the influence of value of children and change in day-to-day roles of women. Majority of the respondents (32%) expressed “increasing marriage cost,” followed by dowry (27%), “not useful in economic activity” (26%) and “lack of security” (13%) as the reason for dislike of female children. The major reasons to have at least one son were to perform death rituals (93%), to inherit family property (90%) and also birth of a male child would enhance the prestige and economic position of the family.24