Objectives: 1. To find out the proportion of patients who encountered stigma in their families. 2. To describe various forms of stigma experienced by the patients. Methodology: 200 TB patients who were registered for treatment under RNTCP during 3rd quarter of 2014 in Mysore district were interviewed. The interview was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire at their place of residence. Results: Out of 200 patients interviewed, 150 were males and 50 were females. 132 patients out of 200 (66%) faced stigma within theirfamilies (p value <0.05). Patients also faced social isolation and were deserted by their families. Also, there were instances where married female patients were forced to undergo treatment at their parents’ houses. Conclusion: A significant majority of patients with tuberculosis were found to have been stigmatized within their own families, showing that TB is indeed a spot inside as well as outside. Such stigmatization may act as a major barrier in achieving the control of tuberculosis. There is an urgent need for the program to take necessary steps to overcome stigma against the disease in the community.

Tobacco is the single greatest cause of death globally. As many as half of people who use tobacco die from the results ofthis use. The WorldHealth Organization (WHO) estimatesthat each yeartobacco causes about 6 million deaths(about 10% of all deaths) with 0.6 million of these occurring in non-smokers due to second-hand smoke. In the 20th century, tobacco is estimated to have caused 100 million deaths. The government of India implemented Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act of 2003, which prohibitssmoking in public places, advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution, direct orindirect advertisement,sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products and saleto and by minors and prohibition of sale around educational institutions. In order to find the compliance of COTPA in Mysore district, the study was conducted with the help of State Institute of Health & Family Welfare, Karnataka, and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. The objective of the study was to assess the current level of compliance to various sections of COTPA in Mysore district. For compliance monitoring, an observation checklist was used to assessthe compliance to differentsectionsoftheActwhich has been developed by the “International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.” A total of 410 public places, 400 points ofsale, and 400 educational institutions wereobserved to assessthe compliance to the COTPA Act (2003). It wasfound that there is clear violationof the Act in majority of the places.

The human population is graying, and with it concerns about the aged have been growing. Even as birth rates fall steeply, improved healthcare systems have contributed to unprecedented longevity levels. The challenges of taking care of the elderly now increasingly face developing nations. The boundary of old age cannot be defined exactly because it does not have the same meaning in all societies. The United Nations International Assembly on Ageing has taken 60 years as the boundary to define old age. 1 Globally, the number of older persons (aged 60 years or over) is expected to be more than double, from 841 million people in 2013 to more than 2 billion in 2050. Presently, about twothirds of the world’s elderly live in developing countries. By 2050, nearly 8 in 10 of the world’s older population will live in the less developed regions. 2 India, as the second most populous country, is witnessing an “aging revolution.” The major issues in India aging are: rapid growth of older segment; feminization of aging; poverty in old age; high growth of 80 + group and decline in family support base.

Introduction: Behavioral disorders are the hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Cardiovascular and gastrointestinal dysfunction such as arrhythmias and dyspepsia are also reported in autism. Some research have implicated autonomic nervous system (ANS) comprising the vagus nerve and dorsal motor nucleus in the pathogenesis of ASD. Aim: To examine the changes in ANS in ASD and to investigate biological markers and histopathological specimens associated with ANS. Method: The authors conducted a pathological and biochemical study on brainstem autonomic and cardiac tissues on four autistic cases and four age-matched controls. They quantified inflammatory, neurotransmitter and amino acid-related markers in both the autistic and control tissues. The data was analyzed using SPSSv18 software. Results: There was a significant increase of microglia in the DMV (dorsal motor vagus nucleus), increased astrocytes in area postrema and decreased ubiquitin levels in the medullary region of the brainstem in ASD tissues compared to the controls. (p<0.05). Alterations in biogenic amines and amino acids associated with dopamine metabolism in the cardiac tissues of the autistic cases were also present. Amino acids alanine, cysteine and tyrosine were significantly low in individuals affected by ASD (p< 0.05). 3-methoxytyramine levels were significantly high (p<0.05) in ASD individuals suggesting dopamine pathway dysfunction.

Women empowerment refers to increasing the political, social or economic strength of women. Women empowerment is a global issue. The SHG movement worldwide aimed at systematically empowering marginalized grass root level women by way of conscientization, income generation and capacity building. “Women’s Empowerment” is the ability to exercise full control over one’s actions. The empowerment of women occurs in reality, when women achieve increasing control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources. It often involves the empowered ones developing confidence in their own capacity. Empowerment is a multi-dimensional process, which should enable women or groups of women to realize full identity and power in all spheres of life. The concept of self-help group has its roots in rural areas and it has been mooted along the rural and semi-urban women to improve their living conditions. Though it is applicable to men in our country, but it has been more successful only among women and they can start economic activities through SHG movement.

The importance of sexual inequality is often felt at the instance of the birth of a child. The first question parents ask at the birth of a child, in all societies all over the world, is always the same, “is it a boy or a girl?” in fact, the inequality of sexes is probably the oldest form of structural social inequality. India is a land of religion where the girl is seen as incarnation of Goddess “Laxmi.” True, many families are out of bounds in joy when a girl child is born in their family. They think she will bring luck, harmony, happiness and peace in their family. But in India, a most brutal form of killing females takes place regularly even before they have the opportunity to be born. Female feticide in India is the act of killing the female fetus outside of the legal channels of abortion. Female feticide is still prevalent in Indian society; in fact, it has been a practice for hundreds of years. Narrow-minded people do not mind murdering unborn daughter for the fear of giving huge amounts of dowry at the time of her marriage. The birth of a girl child is often seen as a curse to the family and the child is considered as a major burden to the parents. Some people could say that this belief was true in the past, but it is not true of the current modern times where the girls are given equal opportunity in education. Still, our country is in practice of killing a unborn female baby. Female feticide is the selective abortion of female fetuses to killing upward of one million females annually. Female feticide is relatively a new practice, emerging concurrently with the advent of technological advancements in parental sex determination on a large scale in 1990s. While abortion is legal in India, it is a crime to abort a pregnancy solely because the fetus is female. In our country female feticide has become a major problem in the contemporary society. If female feticide is to be stopped then there has to be restriction on all the persons involved in such evil practice like medical professionals, clinics, people in general and also people who sell ultrasound and other medicines. This article will discuss about the practice of female feticide in India and the status of women in Indian society.

Aims: To assess awareness and barriers in attitude toward eye donation in women of Chandigarh. Materials and Methods: A pretested, semi-structured questionnaire. Settings and Design: Prospective cohort study. Study time: 12 months. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using the Epi-Info software package, Version 6.04. Results: The majority (82.4%) of women had known that eyes could be donated. But only 5.6% were aware that eyes could be retrieved even at home also.Not many subjects (10.7%) knew about pledge form. Willingness to donate or filling of pledge form was only in 5.5%. Majority of subjects could not make independent decision in eye donation and responded that after consultation with other family members or husband would decide. The subjects were reassessed again after an interval of 3 months. The awareness increased to 100% in the study group. But the attitude toward eye donation did not show much increase. Conclusion: This study depicted the women’s insufficiency in decision making regarding eye donation or signing of pledge forms. To achieve the objectives of vision 2020, prerequisite is to change the negative attitude through behavior change communication toward eye donation and empowering women for taking independent decisions.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. There were 9.0 million new TB cases in 2013 and 1.5 million TB deaths. TB ranks as the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. Though most TB cases and deaths occur among men, the burden of disease among women is also high. In 2013, there were an estimated 3.3 million cases and 510,000 TB deaths among women.1 As TB affects women mainly in their economic and reproductively active years, the impact of the disease is also strongly felt by children and family. While women may have to negotiate more barriers in seeking treatment for TB, they tend to be more compliant than men in taking it. (Page 1: World Health Organization. Gender and tuberculosis control: Towards a strategy for research and action. WHO/CDS/TB/2000.280).

“We recognize that gender equality and women’s empowerment are important for sustainable development and our common future. We reaffirm our commitments to ensure women’s equal rights, access and opportunities for participation and leadership in the economy, society and political decision making. We underscore that women have a vital role to play in achieving sustainable development. We recognize the leadership role of women, and we resolve to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and to ensure their full and effective participation in sustainable development policies, programmes and decision-making at all levels.”

Background: Globally, the proportion of people aged 60 years and above is increasing and they are at risk of multiple co morbidities. Women live longer and older women develop more chronic diseases than men. Objectives: To study the morbidity pattern among elderly population in rural Allahabadand to detect gender differences, if any, among them. Materials and methods:A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in the rural areas of Allahabad district during the period 2007-2008. A total of 411 elderly people were selected from two blocks, Jasra in trans-Yamuna area and Bahadurpur in trans-Ganga area through multistage random sampling method. Observations: Among 411 elderly, 52.1% were males and 42.9% were females. 345(84%) were affected by one or more morbidity, among them 166 (77.6%) were males and 179 (90.9%) were females. This difference was found to be statistically significant. Average number of illness per person was 3.29 and among elderly males and females it was 2.91 and 3.71 respectively. Most prevalent morbidities were related to ocular, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems affecting 70.8, 49.2 and 39.2% respectively. Mental illness and disorders related to ear, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems were other common morbidities in that order, affecting elderly. Under-nutrition and obesity was found among 42.3% and anemia (pallor) in 17.8% of elderly. Significant difference in proportion of morbidities among elderly men and women was found with ocular, musculoskeletal and mental disorders (p <0.001). Most common morbidities affecting elderly were hypertension (44.8%), under-nutrition (41.6%) and cataract (36.3%).

India is a country with rich traditions and unique culture. In such rich culture, women have been kept and treated with great respect and importance. Contradicting to the above dipiction, women have been the victims of humiliation, torture and explotiation from time immemorial. Sexual exploitation was one among them which has never been discussed in the form of exploitation. Infact, prostitution has been in the society which had religious sanction too. During those times, the prostituted women were treated with great dignity as they were well qulified in various discipines. But when the institution like marriage and familiy became stronger, practice of prostituion took a commercial form where all types of rights were denied to the women in sex trade. In such conditions, knowing the hardnes of the task, a very few number of NGOs have intervend in preventing women in sexualtrade. A studywas conducted to understand the types and quality of interventions considering 24 NGOs of South India. The study adopts descriptive and diagnostic research design and interview as tool to collect data. Statistical techniques such as discriptive statistics and contigency coeffeiciant test were adopted. The study reveals NGOs believe in prevention of the problem inspite of it being an old practice. Counselling the vulnerable families and educating the society have been idnetified as a successful tool. The study also highlights different types of preventive activities adopted and also resons for not adopting preventive activies. The major reasons they quote are the obstacles from police department, goondas, etc.

Aging is an inevitable phenomenon in the life of all living beings. With the increase of life expectancy, the numbers of people who are attaining old age are increasing throughout the globe. 1 By the year 2025, the number of elderly people is expected to rise to more than 1.2 billion all over the world. 2 In 2011, the share of older persons aged 60 years and above was 8.6% which has placed India in the “aged” category as per United Nations Classification. Undoubtedly, the process of health transition has accelerated in India, and consequently India has to confront rapid aging of population. 3 Old age is associated with deterioration of health and increase in morbidity. Health status among elderly is a serious problem for health service utilization in India due to increase in elderly population

In the rapid phase of development, one thing which tends to be resolute is the age-old superiority of man over woman; the superiority is manifested in the form of suppression, exploitation, domestic violence, gender bias, eve teasing, molestation,sexual abuse or sexual harassment at work place, etc. Even though Rig-Veda stated that women should have equal status with men, but this thought was never followed; best example is that in the medieval period where all the cruel customs were introduced like sati, child marriage, devdasi, etc., which happened to change the whole status and scenario of the women in a negative way. The most shameful thing is that even after number of good legislations passed by the government to suppress the crimes against women; still these customs are followed by the people in many parts of India. Violence against women like rape, marital rape, domestic violence,stalking, human trafficking and forced prostitution, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, obstetric violence, sexual harassment, etc., has increased widespread. Regardless of many years of advocacy and involvement of many feminist activist organizations, the issue of violence against women still remains one of the most pervasive forms of human rights violations worldwide. Though sexual assault and rape are prominent forms of violence against women, women do frequently face intimidating or repressive types of inappropriate sexual behavior at work place. The victim often undergoes severe stress, strain, but also violates a broad range of rights she is endowed with, such as right to live with dignity. Even then, women who refuse to submit to sexual adventures of those in power are many a time victimized at work place. With this background, the present paper focuses on issues and challenges in tackling sexual harassment of women at work place.

The article aims at highlighting the legal provisions to tackle crime of honor killing. The introductory part gives a side glance of what is honor killing and which acts are considered dishonorable by the community or family. Certain behavior of individuals and acts may become reasons for him or her to be killed by his or her own family, especially by male family members or the community. The next part describes various legal provisions in the Indian Constitution, which can be used to put a stop to these honor killings in the country. These laws can be used as a tool to put behind bars the Khap Panchayat members who give orders of killing individuals for honor’s sake. The next part defines the international provisions related to the honor crimes to which India is a signatory member. The paper questions as to why despite all these provisions killings are rampant in the present times.

The aim of this article is to focus on the concept of aversion to intimacy, a personality trait that can give rise to a dynamic of victimization which in the peculiarities of psychological subjection is a minor manifestation of domestic violence. By aversion, we mean a light inhibition in coping with difficult emotions in facing turbulent situations. This defensive behavior is a risk factor because it permeates the family’s relationships with strain within a deficiency in the capacity for intimacy which is an indicator of relational disturbances. 33 In examining the key mechanism of a developing family’s process similar to the constructionof a scapegoat, we intend to exemplify how the ‘neediness’ in mothering can trigger the unconscious in a dynamic sequentiality that can sort out that kind of female passivity that leads to mental laziness. 24,27 Thanks to data coming from a case of infant observation, we had the chance to reflect upon a psychic constellation that the author has named “the emotional need for a familiar enemy”. 10 The onset was mainly due to a stand-by of the mother’s function to work through the anger and jealousy of her two children because she was so overwhelmed by her emotional perspective. Progressively, her psychological fatigue induced her to bypass questioning and judgments about a climate of enmity because she was prone to tolerate it. The underlying consideration is that when mothers feel frustrated, a form of avoidance in understanding can take place.

Background: The under-nutrition is more common in developing countries like India. The importance of proper nutrition of an infant starts from early initiation of breastfeeding and continues for first 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding which protects the baby from many infections and provide appropriate nutrition. Objectives: 1. To estimate the prevalence of early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding among children less than two years. 2. To assess the factors affecting early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding practices. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among 562 mothers of infants/young children less than 24 months in the field practice area of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, Mysore. The data was collected by using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire introduced to the mother. Data analysis was done by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. Results: In this study, it wasfound that most of the children belonged to 7-11months(25.6%) and more were females 282 (50.2%). Most of the mothers were aged between 21 and 25 years (56.2%), were Hindus (93.6%), educated, homemakers (94%) and belonged to nuclear families (50%). In this study, it was found that 307 (54.6%) mothers initiated breastfeeding within 1 hour of delivery, 170 (30.2%) mothers still practice the pre-lacteal feed, 518 (92.2%) mothers fed colostrum, 261 (46.4%) practiced exclusive breastfeeding. The most common reason for non-exclusive breastfeeding was mother’s perception of milk insufficiency (40.53%) to the child. Hindu religion was the significant social factor influencing on exclusive breastfeeding practices. Conclusion: The early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding was 54.6 and 46.4% respectively. The most common reason for non-exclusive breastfeeding was mother’s perception of milk insufficiency to the child.

Achieving gender equality is one of India’s highest priorities and is considered as a necessary precondition for fully achieving human development. Gender equality recognizes the individual-regardless of sex-as the central figure of societal progress and enables the nation to set on a long and thorny path to democratization and the nation’s sustainable development. The legal framework and policies pursued by the government of India create enabling environment for women to exercise their rights and advance their position in the society. There is a gap between legislative acts and their enforcement. Disparities observed in the level of men’s and women’s participation in economic and social life are, to a large extent, accounted for by patriarchal attitudes and the stereotypes regarding woman’s roles and responsibilities in the family and society, which constitute a significant hindrance to the implementation of legal provisions and are a root cause of woman’s disadvantaged position in public life. A strong concern is required to focus on rural areas, as well as build the capacities of rural woman’s participation in the economic and social life. ? Support rural women willing to increase the level of their economic activity through capacity development and network building. ? Strengthen the role of rural women in community-based decision-making through capacity development and network building. ? Sensitize private sector (banks, non-banking credit units and private companies) to gender needs and interests of women in rural areas. ? Build capacity of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Welfare to address the needs of rural women through advocacy, policy development and programmatic interventions.

Background: One of the targets under Millennium Development Goals is to improve reproductive health for all by 2015. Menstrual hygiene has implications on reproductive health and overall wellbeing especially for adolescents. The gender-unfriendly school infrastructure further contributes to the problem. Objectives: To study the menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent girls oftwo schools in the rural field practice area of MES Medical College. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescent girlsin classes5 to 12 in two schools in the rural field practice area of MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna, Kerala, selected for reproductive health day activities. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to assess the awareness and menstrual hygiene practices. Analysis was done using SPSS. Results: 436 adolescent girls in the age group 10-17 years took part in the study. 64.7% had attained menarche. Mean age at menarche was 12.64 years (SD 1.01). Half of them were aware of menarche but only 15 knew what menstruation is. Mothers were the informants mainly and their occupation influenced awareness. 84.4% used sanitary pads and 60.5% of them disposed padsthrough toilet drains. 205 reported having facilities for pad changing and disposal at schools. 54.9% used clothes and more than half of them used sundried clothes. Seven girls reported not bathing or even hand washing after changing absorbents and five reported not washing external genitalia. Conclusion:Good menstrual hygiene was practiced by less than half. Awareness and practice improved with age. Mother’s occupation influenced menstrual hygiene. Menstrual hygiene and awareness of girls has to be improved.

Consequently to that, the CME program was officially set in motion with Dr Jugal Kishore being the first speaker who spoke on the issue of problems faced by adolescents. He answered various stimulating questions that were raised by the delegates. This was followed by a scientific presentation by Dr Asna Urooj on the topic “Role of nutrition in adolescent health.” The scientific session then shortly ended after which the delegates dispersed for lunch

Globally, 42 million children under the age of five were found to be overweight or obese in 2013. 1 Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic globally. 2 The factors attributing to increasing childhood obesity are increased intake of high calorie foods that are low in vitamins, minerals and micronutrients coupled with decreased physical activity. The rate of increase of childhood overweight and obesity has been more than 30% higher in developing countries than that of developed countries