Beliefs and Practices of Women Health
• Bheenaveni Ramaiah *
Rural women's health is a subject much broader. Many Indian women have come from circumstances in which women have limited access to health care. Traditionally, there has been discrimination against women in decision making, the opportunities to access resources such as food, education and healthcare, and education of children and parenting. However, women's health in rural areas affects everything in their environment to their families for their economy and vice versa. Women's health, especially among poor and illiterate, is often neglected not only by his family, but by the woman herself. She has learned not to complain and if she does then she is directed either to use condiments in the kitchen or try faith healing.
Man is unique in that it has a distinct cultural environment of his own. This includes all conditions in which men are born, raised, live, work, procreate and die. Culture as the environment is deeply linked to human health. It includes models of social organizations designed to regulate a given society can understand the behavior of people belonging to various sections and predict how an individual of a particular section will react in a given situation. With our knowledge of health, treatment of diseases among people ignorant seems strange because they often follow the practice of prayer, the wearing of amulets or consulting an exorcist who recites certain verbal formula. Therefore, we can say that the beliefs and cultural practices play essentially a role in human health especially in women's health.
Many rural people are unaware of the services set up for them at sub-centers and primary health care by the government because they saw no evidence of services being provided for them. Through outreach programs, health workers (ANM) has organized several trips to the exhibition in the villages. Here the women were informed about the specifics of various services supposed to be available to them. This has encouraged some of them to ask questions and report on the situation in their PHC. They explained that if a nurse did visit their village, it was not a daily visit, nor does it go beyond a certain point in the village, and certainly does not take a tour of the village. They pretended to do their duty by providing nominal services.
A variety of factors, including an older population, a limited supply of providers of health care, and greater distances from resources of health care may contribute to specific health problems for people in regions nonmetropolitan. Access to health care and social services are key issues for rural women.
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual is convinced of the truth of a proposition. Like the related concepts truth, knowledge and wisdom, there is no precise definition of belief on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and the debate continued on the nature of belief 1.
The cultural phenomenon of social organization, according to Giger and Davidhizar (2004), includes groups in the social environment that influence cultural development and identification. The family, an important aspect of the phenomenon of social organization strongly influences cultural behavior through a process of socialization or enculturation of children and group members (Giger & Davidhizar; Niska, 1999). These learned cultural behaviors guide individuals through life situations, events and health practices. Understanding the family from a cultural perspective is an important element in providing nursing care to Mexican-Americans from Giger and Davidhizar identify family values as being most in this culture.
Environmental control is defined by Giger and Davidhizar (2004) as the ability of people within a particular cultural heritage to plan activities that control their environment and their perception of one's ability to direct drivers in the environment. Kuipers' (1999) discussion of this model compared to the Mexican-American culture, emphasized the concept of environmental control with a focus on locus of control, health beliefs and folk medicine. Locus of control explains how individuals within their cultural environment, perceive their ability to control what happens to them and their health. Health may be regarded as dependent on outside forces or their own actions (Bundek et al., 1993). Beliefs about health and disease, which are components of environmental control, affect health practices, use of health resources, and the response of a person with experience of health and disease ( Davidhizer & Giger, 2004; Northam, 1996). A third component of environmental control, folk medicine, includes alternative therapies such as using herbs and teas or visiting a cultural folk healer.
Objectives:
1. Exploring beliefs about women's health, risk and their relationship to lifestyles;
2. Elicitation of their views in a series of behaviors and health practices, including puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and child rearing, and evaluation of the potential for positive promotion of women in health these and others of his sexual health.
3. Identifying information sources and influences on the development of health beliefs among women, particularly in respect of common elements in attitudes to risk in a number of beliefs and practices of health.
4. Focusing on what women know themselves and want to know, including the salience of health and relevance of health knowledge in their lives
Hypothesis:
1. There is a positive relationship between social beliefs and cultural practices of a given society
2. May positive relationship is observed among the social beliefs and cultural practices and various other factors such as caste, religion, social customs and traditional society
3. The explanation for the persistence of belief systems is that people remain attached to them, but for the long-term commitment, the belief system must be validated
Research Design:
A quantitative and qualitative study, based on our previous work in this field, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices of children and young women to health risks and lifestyle. One of the methodological guidelines underlying the study was to develop a research design rather than sensitive to women: a study based not only what women know or should know, but also in that They want to know and feel to be important in the context of their everyday lives. The methods for these principles to take forward are described below.
a) Area of study:
The Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh is comprised of ten districts namely Hyderabad, Ranagareddy, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Khammam. In this region, the village Ramchandrapur in Koheda Mandal of Karimnagar district was randomly selected as a study area.
b) Universe & sampling:
According to the 2001 census, the village Ramchandrapur has an approximate population of 1840, nearly 550 families. This village has a health center (PHC), but it lacks a large hospital in a radius of 35 kms. And this village has been chosen as the universe of this study.
So for this study, the researcher adopted the method of proportional stratified random sampling based on the composition of the caste villagers and the respondents chose the family mentioned in the list of housing Ramchandrapur. The village population data were collected from supraja Seva Samithi, a voluntary organization working in the region for the last 10 years in the areas of health, education and environmental protection. The list is to bring together various castes and proportionate from which stratified samples were selected. Then, a list of about 181 respondents was prepared to collect data. Therefore, it is clear that an effort was made to present an overview of data on communities and on the basis of which, opinions and attitudes of respondents were taken into account.
C) tools of data collection:
Since the research is qualitative and quantitative, non-participant observation and interview schedule was adopted to collect primary data. The aspects covered in the interview schedule were set under two sections, one is for the socio-economic and cultural development of interviewees such as name, sex, age, social status, education, religion, income, nature and type of home, etc. and another for the socio-cultural beliefs and practice patterns in health and related treatment of villagers.
D) Analysis and interpretation of data:
After organizing the collected data tabulation and classification, they were analyzed and interpreted in the sociocultural context in order to provide a scientific basis for the study. Although statistical methods such as frequencies, percentages, averages, standard deviations, t-test, chi-squire and ANOVA were used in the study, they were applied in a meaningful way.
Findings:
Socio-economic:
During the fieldwork, noted that 22 castes had appeared and most belong to castes identified as BC Yadava, Gouda, Munnuru Kapu, Vishwa Brahmin Mudiraj and an insignificant number of people is for services such as caste Mangali , CHAKALI, Mera and so on. A considerable amount of people belonging to SC COMMUNITY I. e. Mala and Madiga. Only a small number of respondents belonging to ST (Erukala) community. Of the 181 respondents, 55 percent are male and 45 per cent of women. This research is conducted with almost all equals four times the age groups of respondents. Thus, it is noted that age group is dispersed in this study. More number of respondents i. e. 91% belongs to the Hindu religion and 5% are Muslims. Almost 4% of respondents belong to Christianity. There is also evidence that the phenomena of composition common religion of India.
In this village, a majority of respondents i. e. 82 (45%) are illiterate. The next most number of respondents have studied up to the primary and secondary I. e. 24 (13%). There are 21 (12%) of respondents were literate. A significant number of respondents i. e. 18 (10%) claim to have studied until college while the small number of people who have studied up to professional level, technical level and the other is 7 (4%), 3 (2%) and 2 (1%) respectively. The results show that the more respondents i. e. 55 (30. 4%) were laborers and one quarter of respondents i. e. 45 (24. 9%) engaged in farming. Overall 38 (21%) continue their occupation of the castes, while 20 (11%) and 17 (9. 4%) of respondents do another profession and I grew up in the services sector, respectively. Only a few respondents i. e. 6 (3. 3%) are conducting business.
It is also noted that the majority of respondents i. e. 84. 21% live in houses with tiles and a large number of respondents i. e. 15. 79% have houses R. C. C. A significant number of community respondents province i. e. 75% owner of the house tiled and the rest of their i. e. 14. 29% were R. C. C. houses and 8. 04% are owners of houses with roofs of asbestos. Most respondents SC i. e. 91. 49% live in houses with tiles, while only 8. 51% of the houses consist R. C. C.. Among respondents ST, 33. 33% RCC, tiled house and the house with a thatched roof in the same way. Regarding income, less than 24% of respondents earn Rs 1501 to 2000 per month. Almost equal numbers i. e. 22. 7 and 21. 5% of respondents earning less than Rs 500 and Rs between 1001 and 1500 respectively. A significant number of respondents i. e. 20% obtain a monthly income of around Rs 501 to 1000 when only 12. 7% reported that their income is over Rs. 2000.
This village consists of very fertile land, it is just under half of respondents i. e. 84 (46. 4%) have no land of their own. There are 35 (19. 3%) of those owning land between 1 – 2. 19 acres. A significant number of respondents i. e. 28 (15. 5%) and 20 (11. 04%) have land between the 2. 20 to 4. 39 acres and 5 to 9. 39 acres, respectively. A considerable number of respondents i. e. 14 (7. 7%) are the property of 10 acres and above.
Social Dogmatism on the Menstrual Cycle
Patriarchal societies have tended to dominate women by announcing first menarche (the onset of menstruation in a girl) for the world in a celebration apparently while trying subsequently to control fertility and implicit sexual power by monthly ritual pollution, restriction and isolation of the menstruating woman.
The different names for menstruation or "no periods" in his capacity as polluting. For example, in Telugu it is called samurta or peddamanshi sense to reach maturity. The menstrual blood is considered polluting. There are various restrictions imposed on a young girl because of this belief, such as not touching people or hanging washed clothes to dry, do not touch certain plants or flowers lest they die no fruit, sleep a burlap bag or a blanket away from others. A woman can not touch her child during menstruation. If it is, the child must be completely stripped and made to wear silk clothing. Visit or touching images of gods, temples, religious scriptures are also prohibited. A fear is instilled in the girl it sin if it breaks taboos. Restrictions are also imposed on the diet. These taboos cause pollution of many women to obtain an enforced rest for at least three days this month because they are prevented from conducting their normal activities.
No menstrual blood is only supposed to be dirty, but also evil. A menstruating woman should not let his shadow fall on a child with measles lest the child from going blind. The fabric used menstrual also has a quality of evil. If people see something, dry or otherwise, they could go blind. If a cow had to swallow the cloth she would curse the girl to infertility. In villages in the PA, women do not throw their menstrual tissue or they burn or bury them.
There seems to be some similarities between Hindus and Muslims on the practice of some of these rituals. Among Muslims, the menstruating woman should not touch the holy books do not become impure. Converted Christians follow, although to a lesser extent, the rituals of their caste. Taboos and rituals clearly devalued. Powers reproductive women. The notion that women are unclean and polluted can be attributed to the patriarchal control of power in reproductive women. While women play a vital social role to give birth to offspring through its ability to biological reproduction, it is at the same time, isolated during menstruation.
Cultural practices of puberty
Most women do not know about the physiology of menstruation and therefore the first experience of menstruation is filled with fear, shame and disgust. In some regions, in rural areas of the AP of the young girl is sometimes called dub three or four menstrual blood or mustard oil on the wall and draw a line between the second and third or third and fourth, she thinks she will end her period in two and a half or three and a half days in all subsequent periods.
Elaborate rituals are performed in the southern states of India and in many parts of northern India from the beginning of menstruation. The onset of puberty is traditionally considered in terms of emerging sexuality of the girl and the prospective motherhood. The pubescent girl is given an elaborate ritual bath after a massage with turmeric and vermilion. Mudiraj communities in the PA to isolate the pubescent girl for 21 days in the house, away from the male gaze. The room in which it is isolated is separated with an iron bar and a fire is maintained continuously during this period. Fire means purity and also keeps away daiyyam or witches and evil spirits. The girl is polluted, and therefore forbidden to touch people and others have no right to touch. In case of default, a bathroom is essential for the purification ritual.
The impact of diet on Women Health:
Although women are more or less marginalized and neglected as regards quality and quantity of food on certain occasions in a woman's life is celebrated by offering a variety of nutritious foods prepared specially for her. Almost every community has the practice of feeding a young girl on her first period, with delicious and nutritious food, with time in prison for the period ranging from nine to 21 days. In some parts of AP, sweets made of jaggery, groundnut, sesame, fenugreek, wheat flour and sorghum are given to the girl. Menstruation for the first time in the house of his wife's family is also considered very promising in all parts of AP and is celebrated with gaiety. . The idea seems to be the daughter of "rich", that is strength-giving food as well as two "hot" and "cold foods".
Some "hot" foods (like jaggery) and "cold foods" (such as tamarind and lemons) are a taboo subject that we believe that the girl will suffer from menstrual pain. "Hot foods' May cause bleeding and" cold foods "May cause severe menstrual pain. Special foods are included to offset the loss of blood, regulate the menstrual cycle and flow, strengthen its reproductive organs and generally contribute to its fertility.
Prohibition of employment of pregnant women:
It is also observed during the fieldwork that almost all respondents indicated that the prohibition of work is required when the pregnancy of women, but this concept varies from one community to another. The communities of higher social status are not authorized to perform the work, even work as domestics in the first month after several months of late motherhood. Considering that the weaker section women perform active national daily some of them perform on the field but is activated only in the first month. They should also take rest in the last months of pregnancy and the early months of motherhood.
Encourage and Disencourage Food Items during the pregnancy of the woman:
During pregnancy and lactation, many traditional communities around the country restrict the intake of a woman. It is believed that if a pregnant woman eats too much, the fetus will not be enough room to move. The abdomen is supposed to contain both the food and the fetus and the space requirements of the latter should be given greater priority. Another reason to control food intake of a pregnant woman may be that excess weight would reduce the productivity of its work in fields and around the house. A widespread practice throughout India is shrimanta. In the seventh month of pregnancy special rituals are performed and the different types of cakes are prepared and given to parents-to-be. The goal is to provide moral support and encouragement to pregnant women and to celebrate his achievement of having reached near term. The sweets are usually made from wheat flour, jaggery, ghee, fenugreek and dried fruits. In the last stages of pregnancy, the pregnant woman is supposed custom cat these foods every day. It is good practice because it provides calories and protein needed for the rapidly growing fetus in the last trimester of pregnancy.
Foods Encourage Disencourage%%
1. Milk 173 95. 5 8 4. 4
2. Green Leaf 148 81. 7 33 18. 2
3. Toddy 80 44. 1 101 55. 8
4. Non-Veg 132 72. 9 49 27
5. Papaya — — 181 100
6. Potatoes 49 27 132 72. 9
7. Brinjal 50 27. 6 131 72. 3
The above table explains the perceptions of villagers and encourage the food disencourage during pregnancy women. The data show that there are 173 (95. 5%) of respondents said they encourage the milk and articles related to food and only insignificant number of respondents i. e. 8 (4. 4%) are not encouraging food milk. No less than 148 (81. 7%) of them revealed that they are encouraging green leaves and the rest of the large number of respondents i. e. 33 (18. 2%) are not interested in giving the green leaves to Pregnant. Interestingly, this data shows that over half of respondents i. e. 101 (55. 8%) said they are encouraging grog and 80 (44. 1%) of them do not take grog. A significant number of respondents i. e. 132 (72. 9%) expressed that they encourage the consumption of non vegetarian foods like mutton, chicken and egg. The total number of respondents is the practice of banning the consumption of papaya during pregnancy. All while equal number of respondents i. e. 49 (27%) and 50 (27. 6%) showed that potatoes are encouraged Brinjal and food and also similar 132 (72. 9%) and 131 (72. 3%) of them are not encouraging food Potato and Brinjal.
Data on treatment of pregnant women among the villagers to clarify the basis of the opinions of respondents several communities such as Yadava 14 (7. 7%), Gouda 3 (1. 7%), Munurukapu 11 (6. 1% ) Oddera 6 (3. 3%), Vishwa Brahmin 5 (2. 8%), Mala 25 (13. 8%), Madiga 21 (11. 6%), Padmashali 7 (3. 9%), every 3 (1. 7%) of Mangal, Dudekula and Erukala, Kumari 2 (1. 1%) and each 1 (0. 6%) of Pusala, Mera, and Chindi Dakkali reported that family and their parents, caregivers their mothers. In this category, the total number of SC and ST communities have emerged due to the financial condition and under pressure from the peer group. A majority number of workers as Yadava caste, Munnurukapu, Odder, Padmashali, Dudekula and Kummar appeared. However, people in these communities are visiting either government or private hospital to check their health status during early pregnancy hood, and before delivery. Another interesting point that the caste is Mangali himself with TBAs Community in the village so we consider them in May in response to this request that they are pregnant to worry that a traditional birth attendant and as a family. Overall 3 (1. 7%) of Yadava, 2 (1. 1%) Gouda, 1 (0. 6%) and Munnurukapu Kummar, 8 (4. 4%) of Chakali, 5 (2. 7 %) of Dudekula and the total number of Mudiraj 7 (4%) community who responded indicated that the TBA are pregnant regardless of their communities. It is important to note that earlier, these caste people cared about speakers, but currently, they seek the help of traditional birth attendants because of time savings. Such villagers always busy in their routine work if they engage in the process of care, they should be lost over time in money to also. The data also describes most of all respondents Deshmukh 3 (1. 6%), Vysya 4 (2. 2%) and Vaisnava 5 (2. 7%) communities have revealed that health workers or ANMs s 'occupy the pregnant women. It may due to the awareness of higher health and bias or personal biases of health workers or ANMs who are interested in partnering with communities better social status.
Because the best place of birth, the majority from respondents i. e. 112 (62%) is that the rise to the TBA is more preferable. As far as the number of respondents i. e. 36 (20%) indicated that their place of birth is established hospitals and respondents bore i. e. 32 (18%) expressed their feeling that the private hospital is better to give birth. The cluster analysis of data also provides social status wise explanation that there are 7 (4%) of OC, 19 (10. 5%) of BCS and 10 (5. 5%) of SC are interested in address the government hospitals. There are 10 (5. 5%) of CO and 23 (12. 7%) of the BCS were concerned about hospitals soldiers. Among the bore of categories, the number of respondents in British Columbia I. e. 70 (38. 5%), 37 (20. 5%) and the total number of community respondents ST i. e. 3 (1. 7%) and only few (2 (1. 1%)) Respondent D. are always interested in birth under observation or treatment of the TBA.
Practices after delivery:
Women themselves are undernourished during pregnancy and fight for a baby to ensure easy delivery. Babies should be breastfed on the first three days and children's clothes were not used until a ceremony (purudu / naming) of 9 overnight 21st. The mothers could not leave the birthing room until now. To minimize the toilet needs, they severely limited their intake of fluids and food during the first week after delivery. Mothers do not wash their hands properly, their clothes and the clothes were often dirty. The newborns, even in cases of illness have not been transferred out of the house. The usual explanations for diseases of newborns were "evil eye", "witch craft", or the evil effects of food consumed by the mother.
The practice of breast-feeding female children for periods of time shorter reflects the strong desire for boys. If women are particularly keen to have a male child, they may deliberately try to become pregnant again as soon as possible after a female is born. Conversely, women may consciously seek to avoid another pregnancy after the birth of a male child to give maximum attention to the son of new
Summary and conclusions:
Because of the dogma orthodoxical and traditional numbers, the majority of respondents have no concept unique to women's health. In addition to supernatural beliefs about what causes the disease, women also have beliefs about non-physical causes of ill health. The syndrome most frequently found was "weakness" which consists of fatigue, body aches, ghabrahat (a generic term used for anxiety, fear, restlessness, nervousness, etc.), pallor, low back pain and burning of palms and feet. Thus poverty, illiteracy and social backwardness complete subordination of women. In reality, therefore, most women have a considerable degree of anxiety and mental anguish because of the bad beliefs and practices.
However, practices exist or to come for hearing problems, which may be physical, psychological, cultural and environmental. Subsequently, the practices are strengthened so that the persistence of beliefs. Une fois, la croyance est à gagner sa propre identité, l'existence de la pratique devrait automatiquement être trouvé par les exploits des victimes ou des adeptes. Parfois, la croyance pourrait détériorer du fait de l'entreprise, rentable et le rationalisme devraient également disparaître les croyances irrationnelles afin que nous puissions finalement à la conclusion croyances existent par les pratiques qui mai a lieu à venir sur les problèmes ou de les ajuster à la nature.
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