A Study of Socio Cultural Practices in the Personal Development/Empowerment of Adolescent Girls
Exploring Psychosocial and Cultural Barriers Faced by Adolescent Girls in Rural India
by Dr. Niyant B. Patel*,
- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540
Volume 15, Issue No. 1, Apr 2018, Pages 103 - 107 (5)
Published by: Ignited Minds Journals
ABSTRACT
The examination endeavors to discover the current social and cultural practices in regards to period, mindfulness levels, and the conduct changes that occur in adolescent girls amid monthly cycle, their discernment about menarche, how they would treat it, and the different taboos, standards, and cultural practices related with menarche. Indeed, even today in the 21st century India, the psychosocial and cultural situations have multitudinous preferential conventions and excess traditions endowment, child marriage, absence of education, physical and mental viciousness, and so on. The Indian girls in light of their auxiliary status in the general public may have low confidence and poor mental prosperity. In this manner it winds up imperative to ponder the psychosocial and cultural boundaries looked by Indian girls keeping in mind the end goal to offer an opportune adjustment that can enable them to assume a considerable part in getting down to business the future village society. The wide goal of the present investigation was to recognize the psychosocial and cultural obstructions in a village society which thwarting to get girls' maximum capacity. Two hundred and ten members, between the age group of 13-19 years, from District Rohtak in Haryana (India), reacted in a particular survey. Meetings and center group talks were additionally held. Around 10 talks were taken with rural ladies. Results acquired demonstrate certain components as inhibitors (e.g. unsafe customary practices, clashing circumstances, sexual orientation segregation and so forth.). The ramifications of the discoveries in giving ways to arrangement creators, social researchers, and health professionals towards rural regions in regards to adolescent girls has been talked about.
KEYWORD
socio cultural practices, personal development, empowerment, adolescent girls, period, awareness levels, behavior changes, menarche, taboos, cultural practices, psychosocial barriers, cultural barriers, Indian girls, low self-esteem, mental well-being, village society, Haryana, India, traditional practices, gender discrimination, solution strategies, rural areas
INTRODUCTION
Adolescent girls are critical segment of our general public as they are our potential moms and future homemakers. Adolescents include almost 50% of the developing time frame in man. The term adolescence has been characterized by WHO as a time of life where a progression of differed, quick and broad change happens. It is a pivotal stage to make up for lost time development in the existence cycle of girls after earliest stages. There are numerous physical changes occure in this stage. Empowerment is the way toward learning by which ladies indentify by their own potential and as needs be they charge to perform better in the general public. One of the significant difficulties previously every adolescent girl is to deal with monthly cycle, which is an ordinary body work in females. Monthly cycle is an essential conceptive health work, yet it has been managed mystery in India. Various taboos and social and cultural confinements still exists concerning monthly cycle, which threatens the girls and make their life troublesome. Therefore, menstruation is for the most part unwelcomed by the adolescent girls. Period incorporates endless legends and puzzles. The most widely recognized social and cultural practices and limitations concerning feminine cycle among the young ladies and ladies are not going into the puja room, not going into the kitchen, not investigating the mirror, and not going to the visitors amid feminine cycle. Not going into the puja room is the real confinement among urban girls while not entering the kitchen is the primary limitation among the rural girls amid monthly cycle. Concentrates likewise demonstrate that the mindfulness with respect to feminine cycle preceding its beginning is poor among adolescent girls. In a few sections of India, some strict dietary limitations are likewise taken after amid feminine cycle, for example, acrid sustenance like curd, tamarind, and pickles are generally evaded by discharging girls (Paul, 2007; Puri and Kapoor, 2006). Discharging girls and ladies are confined from
Cultural ethnicity incorporates the cultural qualities, states of mind, and practices that may recognize ethnic groups and prompt particular conduct styles. The subjective feeling of ethnic personality might be held by group individuals combined with the encounters related with ethnic minority status, including feebleness, separation, and preference. Ongoing statistic information show that a fundamental headstrong slaughtering of female newborn children is a relic of days gone by in numerous created nations. A few societies have polished female child murder to dispose of undesirable girls (Rousselle, 2001). Sex separation is most pervasive in Indian cultural ethnicity. Albeit female child murder is currently a wrongdoing in India, statistics information of the most recent two decades demonstrate a persevering male predisposition in sex proportions in a few sections of the nation. The proportion of girls to young men in India is ending up progressively skewed for young men, as an ever increasing number of girls are by and large specifically prematurely ended as hatchlings or executed after birth (Malaviya, 2005). Between 1992-93 and 1998-1999 the assessed number of sex particular actuated premature births declined from 69,000 to 62,000 and from 57,000 to 51,000 in Haryana and Punjab separately. Rural regions indicate higher inclination for sex specific premature births than urban regions, UNFPA (2001). The 2001 statistics had just featured the unfriendly sex proportion in Haryana. While India has revealed a child sex proportion of 927 girls to 1000 young men, against a world average of 1045 ladies to 1000 men, Haryana falled a long ways behind in general proportion with 861/1000, where Rohtak had 847/1000 and Sonepat had 839/1000. The proportion additionally declined in Rohtak with 796/1000 and Sonepat with 783/1000, in the 0-6 age group which was 820/1000 for general Haryana. Despite the fact that it was accounted for in "The Tribune" of July 5, 2006, State Health Minister asserted somewhat enhanced status for different locale of Haryana, including Rohtak (820/1000) and Sonepat (790/1000). This sex proportion is more terrible when the principal child is a female; it is a hopeless 614/1000 in Punjab, 667/1000 in Haryana, and in urban regions it goes down to 614/1000. The nation average in this classification is 759/1000. Nonetheless, when the principal child is a male, Punjab's sex proportion goes up to a healthy 1003/1000 (Jha et. al., 2006). As it were, with one child taken care of, families are less disposed to go in for sex assurance tests and female foeticide. Their examination likewise centered around the training variable revealing that children destined to moms with register or advanced education had a fundamentally bring down sex proportion at 683/1000 than ignorant moms at 869/1000. (2007) by Canada based International Development Research Center revealed about the inclination of just a single child, a child; Rohtak in Haryana was one of the sample regions. There are generous investigates demonstrating segregation amongst young men and girls before birth as well as after birth. Cultural and ethnographic reports recommend that the part of cultural practices, similar to the high expenses of settlement and the possibility of seniority care and security by children, are the primary purposes behind the predominance of female disregard, Miller (1981). All the more as of late, in a survey distributed about Delhi in Hindustan Times (August, 2008), about the reasons of young men being given inclination over girls uncovered a few intriguing actualities. Females announced such assorted reasons as help in maturity (90%), acquiring settlement (75%), continuation of the family name (37%), while guys reacted as continuation of the family name (89%), bolster in seniority (88%), riches staying in the family (60%), and getting share (17%). One reason, as revealed by Hoffman (1988), is that in India children are viewed as a wellspring of monetary security. Guardians trust that children will bolster them in their maturity, while little girls have a place with the spouse's family and go up against the duties of the husband's family. Subsequently, the child's esteem stands improved. The years of adolescence are the years of progress and development at the organic, mental, and social level. This is the period when girls begin bleeding, get hitched and some of them have their first child, particularly in the rural regions. It is in these years of change from childhood to womanhood that girls, maybe, require most extreme thoughtfulness regarding empower them to be healthy and beneficial in later stages. However this group has been dismissed up until this point. It is a time of dynamic identity development, settling Identity versus Part Confusion emergency and tending to "Who am I?" questions. Since birth an infant girl in a few sections of India is unwelcome. Uncountable biased conventions, excess traditions, routine with regards to share, child marriages, lack of education, physical and mental savagery, sow the seeds of reliance for a lifetime that prompt a negative effect on her mental prosperity. Hudson and cave Boer (2004) have contended that male one-sided sex proportions likewise influence the mental health of people in complex ways.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Deepti Umashankar, (2007), has directed an investigation to investigate the effect of interest in Self-Help Groups on the empowerment of ladies with
Dr. Niyant B. Patel*
group approach while conceptualizing any program for rural ladies. The examination was conucted in District Mewat in the Northern State of Haryana. Results demonstrates that the inclusion in SHGs has empowered ladies to have a voice in the group undertakings and they have possessed the capacity to handle problems, for example, an absence of drinking water and power, access to health administrations and children‟s training. Chege, F, (2009), has completed an investigation to exhibit how sex brutality (male and Female) in African formal instructive settings connects with schooling to create impaired encounters for girls contrasted and their male schoolmates. This investigation demonstrates that girls encounter sex savagery in their schools particularly by their male instructors. Singh and Singh and Suman, (2011), have contemplated the Socio-cultural Barriers in the Personal Growth of Rural Adolescent Girls. Discoveries uncover that even today in the 21st century India, the psychosocial and cultural situations have multitudinous biased conventions and excess traditions: settlement, child marriage, absence of education, physical and mental brutality, and so forth. The Indian girls due to their auxiliary status in the general public may have low confidence and poor mental prosperity. Results acquired demonstrate certain components as inhibitors (e.g. destructive customary practices, clashing circumstances, sexual orientation segregation and so on.). Nagar, Sharma and Chopra, (2014), have completed an examination to know the confidence of adolescent girls and the components influencing in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh. Results showed that lion's share of the girls had average scores of confidence with an average of 83.56. Confidence scores were observed to be emphatically associated with the instructive status of the girls. The analysis likewise uncovered that the family sort of girls influenced the scores of confidence.
METHODOLOGY
Sample-
By chance sampled 210 rural adolescent girl students inside the age scope of 13-19 years learning at ninth to twelfth standard in both of the two co-instruction schools: Government Higher Secondary School, Jasiya, District Rohtak (Haryana) and Navyug Higher Secondary School, Mundhal, District Rohtak (Haryana) reacted to a questionnaire arranged based on center group discussion and nonparticipant perception. Focused Group Discussion: The primary endeavor to get subjective data depended on center group discussions with rural ladies and adolescent girls. Around 10 talks were taken with rural ladies (15-25 for every group). The sex segregation was talked about alongside different subjects. Likewise with adolescent girls some casual speaks were held about their life difficulties, sex segregation, amusement, offices and so on. These talks were taken amid a NGO's (named Choupal) visit amid 2007-2008. The NGO, in authority of Dr. Tonk, Head, Department of Medicines, RML Hospital, New Delhi, takes into account all strengths in drug, veterinary, farming and mental help. The group remains with the villagers the entire day on Sundays and gives their claims to fame.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A youthful dowager (age around 20 years) in a village with a newborn child (fortunately), looks towards the Panchayat's (people group pioneers) choice for choosing her destiny. She has dependably been subject to her dad, sibling and spouse notwithstanding to visit one place to another (e.g. indeed, even to go to her parent's home or to her in-laws' home), and she isn't in any situation to take her own particular choices. She needs to bear the custom of Latta uddana (someone else being doled out by the family as the spouse, typically the perished husband's sibling or first cousin). This gets more convoluted since her genuine brother in-law is as of now wedded. Outrageous reliance is a deterrent in her path, and to add to this is her changed status as a dowager, which intensifies her circumstance. All these troubles diminish her to being a manikin in others' grasp. The village society is gradually limping towards atomic family style from a joint family style. In this manner, instruction to create freedom, basic leadership control, self-esteem, word related capability, and so on among females is an absolute necessity. Supporting this view, Punia, Balda and Punia (2005) announced in an examination situated in Haryana that ladies can't think freely and look for the assistance of male individuals even in taking day by day life choices and getting their ordinary problems settled. In another upsetting scene the specialist watched a lady, mother of two girls, after readily doing female foeticide crying with pain as though the fetus removal was common and as though it was inconceivable for her to proceed with the pregnancy and bring forth a
Reason being two mental sets – picking set number of children (not more than three at any cost) joined by the powerful urge of a child that forces her to do this demonstration. A few psychosomatic issue have been creating in ladies because of these sorts of social issues. In the second endeavor to assemble data, when met, the Principals of the schools indicated acknowledgment that the greater part of the guardians are not inspired by sending their little girls outside for think about, early marriages are visit, and there are less chances to go outside for instruction. Guardians need defensive condition for their little girls and that is likely not apparent to be the situation to the extent driving too far off focuses of instruction is included.
Table-I : Demographic information in terms of Means and Percentages.
As detailed in the table guardians of 13 to 19 years old ninth to twelfth class female students from rural zones of Rohtak District were not exceedingly taught (see Table I) and had regular income with the exception of those in benefit. Number of children per family run was 1-6, having 3 and 4 children being the conspicuous pattern. Higher number of children might be connected with less training and less female foeticide. Jha et al. (2006) focused on instruction variable detailing that children destined to moms with class 10 or advanced education had an essentially bring down female sex proportion at 683/1000 than ignorant moms at 869/1000. It might prompt less taught moms having higher number of children and less female foeticide yet children's inclination remains similarly solid taking all things together.
CONCLUSION
There are not kidding worries about female adolescent health in India and the social and cultural practices are further increasing the issue. Albeit numerous social particularly girls. Numerous age-old convictions and practices are conveyed from ages, however it is not really understood that a considerable lot of those have turned out to be insignificant today. Rather than imparting about the right sterile practices identified with monthly cycle to the adolescent girls, we are entrapping them in fantasies and custom. By following, such cultural practices indiscriminately, we are intentionally influencing the adolescents to remain on the intersection. It is in this way vital to fortify safe menstrual sterile practices among girls and haul them out of false discernments, superfluous practices, and conventions identified with monthly cycle. In this manner, girls ought to be roused to build up a positive self idea which would make them ready to manage their own particular life and acknowledge any test. Instruction ought to be bestowed to make them self ward so they would turn out to be more certain and engaged. Girls ought not see themselves as second rate than young men as they additionally have ability to take choices themselves.
REFERENCES
Hudson, V. M., & den Boer, A. M. (2004). Bare branches: The security implications of Asia‘s surplus male population. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jha, P., Kumar, R., Vasa, P., Dhingra, N., Thiruchelvam, M. R. (2006). Low male-to-female sex ratio of children born in India: National survey of 1·1 million households. The Lancet, 367, pp. 211-218 Malaviya, A. (2005). Understanding sex ratio at birth in India. Seminar Paper, IIPS, 2004-, pp. 1-18. Miller, B. D. (1981). The endangered sex: Neglect of female children in rural North India. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press. Paul, D. (2007). A report of an ICMR funded research project: Knowledge and practices of adolescent girls regarding reproductive health with special emphasis on hygiene during menstruation. New Delhi, India: National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. Punia, D., Balda, S. & Punia. S. (2005). Promoting social competence for Development of Rural Girl Child. Journalof Human Ecology, 18, 173-176 Nagar, Sharma and Chopra, (2014), Self- esteem among Rural
Dr. Niyant B. Patel*
Pradesh. Puri, S., & Kapoor, S. (2006). Taboos and myths associated with womens health among rural and urban adolescent girls in Punjab. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 31(4), pp. 168–170. Rousselle, R. (2001). If it is a girl, cast it out: Q Infanticide/ exposure in Ancient Greece. Journal of Psychohistory, 28, pp. 303–333. Singh, et.al (2011). Socio-cultural Barriers in the Personal Growth of Rural Adolescent Girls. Indian Journal of Social Science Researches, Vol. 6, No. 2, Oct., 2009, pp. 152-163 ISSN : 0974-9837 Ten, V. T. A. (Ed.). (2007). Menstrual hygiene: A neglected condition for the achievement of several millennium development goals. Europe External Policy Advisors. Retrieved from http://www.eepa.be/wcm/component/option,com_remository/ func, startdown/id,26/ Umashankar Deepti, (2007). Women‘s Empowerment: Effect of Participation in Self Singh Devendra Singh Alpana (2009) Manual of Adolescent girls Empowerment scale Manasvi.
Corresponding Author Dr. Niyant B. Patel*
Assistant Professor, Seth Shree I.M. Patel College of Education, Gujarat