Northeastern States Of India Research Articles

Women's experiences with maternity care in public health facilities of Assam, India.

India is committed to Sustainable Development Goal 3 of reducing the national maternal mortality ratio to <70/100,000 live births by 2030. This article describes women's experiences of maternity care in public health facilities in three districts of the north-eastern Indian state of Assam. Fourteen focus-group discussions were carried out among 149 married women aged 18-45 years belonging to different ethnic communities. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach and organized using a framework of dimensions of maternal satisfaction. The findings suggest that access and distance were important considerations determining maternal care quality, especially in the two remote districts. Women reported inadequate infrastructure, lack of cleanliness, and poor access to medicines. Lack of prompt care was identified as an important issue, and women complained about being left unattended during labor and facing obstetric violence in the labor room. Our findings point toward the need to strengthen referral transport systems and establish maternity waiting homes in remote areas. It is important to also sensitize health providers about obstetric violence and the right of women to receive prompt and respectful maternity care.

Problems of identity and separatism of ethnic minorities in the global world: case of Assam, India

The article is dedicated to the study of the problem of separatist and protest movements among ethnic minorities in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, seeking to maintain their identity. Over the centuries, migration trends in the state have shaped a complex multiethnic and multicultural population. Amendments to the Citizenship Law in the 2000s led to an even greater unification of the local population in protest groups for political reasons. The first part of the article provides a brief overview of the historical prerequisites influencing the destabilization of the Assamese society in the modern world. The second part focuses on specifics of the protests in 1950s–60s. The third part revolves around the current state of affairs in the Assam society, tracing various forms of protest and identifying sides of the conflicts between: a) tribal communities in their struggle for inclusion in the category of Scheduled Tribes; b) tribes and non-tribal populations; c) tribes and immigrants; d) the unification of tribes against the state. A parallel between ethnic separatism in the Indian northeastern states and the European version is drawn. The article is based on publications in the English-language media and academic works of Indian researchers, in which a view of the problem from within the state is traced. The study concludes that before the problem with illegal immigrants, there was a number of several other reasons, due to which, over the centuries, many ethnic groups have sought to obtain autonomy.

Prevalence of overweight/obesity, hypertension and its associated factors among women from Northeast India

ObjectiveTo assess prevalence of overweight/obesity, hypertension and its risk factors among women from North-eastern States of India. MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was carried out in two north-eastern States. Information was collected on household's socio-economic & demographic particulars. Height (cm), weight (kg), waist and hip circumferences and blood pressure were measured on all the selected women. Association between overweight/obesity, hypertension with socio-demographic variables was tested using Chi-square and logistic regression was done. Total 1047 women were covered from both the states. ResultsThe prevalence of chronic energy deficiency was 19% & 10%, overweight/obesity (BMI≥23) was 17.5% & 26% and hypertension was 15% & 17% (age adjusted 19.6% & 17%) respectively among women from Meghalaya & Nagaland. The prevalence of pre-hypertension was observed more among women from Nagaland (36.5%) as compared to Meghalaya (18.3%). Only 31% women were aware of hypertension and 6% had history of hypertension and 82% of them were on treatment. The prevalence of hypertension was observed high among 36–49 years and among overweight/obese women. On logistic regression, only age, BMI and use of additional salt was observed to be significantly associated with hypertension, while living in pucca house was associated with overweight/obesity. ConclusionsThe prevalence of hypertension was similar in both the states (15–17%) and pre-hypertension was high among women from Nagaland. This is warning sign for women in Nagaland. There is an urgent need to undertake more health & nutrition education sessions along with regular check-up for early diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.

Gender bias, social bias, and representation in Bollywood and Hollywood

SummaryWe use a suite of cutting-edge natural language processing methods to quantify and characterize societal and gender biases in popular movie content. Our data set consists of English subtitles of popular movies from Bollywood–the Mumbai film industry—spanning 7 decades (700 movies). In addition, we include movies from Hollywood and movies nominated for the Academy Awards for contrastive purposes. Our findings indicate that while the overall portrayal of women has improved over time in popular movie dialogues from both Bollywood and Hollywood, modern films still exhibit considerable gender bias and are yet to achieve equal representation among genders. We also observe a strong bias favoring fair skin color in Bollywood content that occurred consistently across all time periods we considered. While our geographic representation analysis indicates improved inclusion over time for several Indian states, it also reveals a long-standing under-representation of many northeastern Indian states.

Feasibility study on renewable energy system in tea (Camellia sinensis) estates of North-East India

The management of energy consumption in agriculture is a worldwide concern because of the adverse effects of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, which are generally used as an energy source for various applications in agriculture. Renewable energy technologies are promoted in many parts of the world for various agriculture applications for mitigating CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuels. Tea (Camellia sinensis) is the most manufactured beverage consumed in the world and the global tea market has been valued at 15 billion dollars. India ranks second (after China) among the tea producing countries across the World. A pilot study was carried out in the north eastern states of India, which is the major tea-growing region of the country during 2020. The main objective behind study was to explore the use of non-renewable sources of energy and amount of CO2 emission from the conventional energy sources as well as the feasibility of a renewable energy system in tea estates. The results from data analysis reveal that there is huge scope for adoption of renewable energy systems in tea estates of the north-eastern region which will be beneficial both for the tea estates as well as the environment.

Prediction of Aggregate Impact Values and Aggregate Crushing Values Using Light Compaction Test

Abstract Crushing test and Impact test are very important to estimate strength and toughness characteristics of the road aggregate. Extensive experimental procedures and different sets of equipment are required for these types of aggregate testing. Therefore, the objective of the study is to investigate whether the light compaction test can be a suitable alternative for both these tests. For this experimental procedure, 60 aggregate samples were collected from different rock quarries spread along North-eastern states of India. The specifications of the aggregate samples are kept similar for all of these three test procedures. The result indicates a strong correlation of Light compaction values (LCV) with Aggregate crushing values (ACV) and Aggregate Impact Values (AIV). The R2 values for the relationship was found to be more than 0.9 for both these relationships. It indicates that the LCV can be used to closely predict the ACV and AIV. The root mean square error (RMSE) values estimated based on the actual and predicted values were also found to be low which further concrete the claim that light compaction test can be a suitable alternative for crushing test and impact test of the aggregates.

A retrospective study reveals the Porcine circovirus-2f genotype predominant in the indigenous pig population of North-eastern India.

Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2) is a widespread virus and presents sub-clinically in most of the swineherd. Globally, eight genotypes of PCV2 have been identified that is PCV2a to 2h. To determine the region-wide genotype distribution of PCV2 infection, with additional reference to indigenous breeds, a total of 1314 pig's clinical samples from the eight states of North-eastern India between 2011 and 2014; were analyzed. The overall prevalence rate of PCV2 in this region was 28.2% (370/1314) by PCR. The state-wise PCR based PCV2 prevalence rate was: Tripura (20.8%), Nagaland (25.0%), Meghalaya (25.8%), Assam (32.1%), Sikkim (32.6%), Manipur (33.3%), Mizoram (36.7%) and Arunachal Pradesh (42.3%). Subsequently, a total of 29 complete genomes of PCV2 were amplified and sequenced from these PCV2 positive samples. The phylogenetic tree represents that the 29 PCV2 isolates of this study were divided into four distinct genetic groups; PCV2a, PCV2b, PCV2d, and PCV2f. Among these, 14 PCV2 strains were classified as PCV2f, 13 classified as PCV2d, and one isolate of each classified as PCV2a and PCV2b. All the 14 PCV2f strains appeared from indigenous pigs of this region. Based on the date of collection, the present study further describes that the PCV2f genotypes circulate in the indigenous pigs' population back in 2011. The amino acid residues and the atomic coordinate structure (3D model) of PCV2f capsid protein represents similarity to PCV2d capsid protein support the efficacy of the existing PCV2 vaccine against the PCV2f. The observation of this study helps to understand the genotype distribution of PCV2 and stands as a reference for future molecular epidemiological studies in North-eastern India.

The Potential for Sustainable Organic Farming in Nagaland: A Case Study

In 2015, Sikkim, a North-Eastern state of India, achieved the state of being fully organic. Later, states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Goa and Kerala have declared their intentions to be fully organic. In Nagaland, more than 47% of the population is engaged in agriculture and entirely dependent on the traditional mode of farming and has used organic manure like cattle dung, dried leaves-litter and crop residues for enhancing the capacity of soil from time immemorial. Also, studies have shown that the state of Nagaland has negligible use of inorganic supplements in their fields. Thus, Nagaland has a high potential to be converted into an organic state without making any significant shifts in their existing farming practices. Shifting cultivation, locally known as Jhum-kheti, is one of the oldest forms of the agricultural process in practice in Nagaland. However, some studies regard Jhum cultivation as harmful to the environment, but there is a scope to reinvent this farming method and move towards a more sustainable form of agriculture there. This study explores the relation between traditional farming and organic farming and the benefits of state-induced organic farming methods and their effects on the farmers of Nagaland. A survey was carried out in the Mokokchung district of Nagaland to understand the role of farmers in attaining sustainability.

Flood susceptibility mapping using extremely randomized trees for Assam 2020 floods

The year 2020 proved disastrous for the north eastern state of India, Assam. The state witnessed terrible floods in the midst of the pandemic. The current study aims to better understand the role played by various factors that contributed to the deluge. To this end, the current study undertakes a flood susceptibility mapping using a seldom employed decision tree based ensemble machine learning technique of extremely randomized trees (ERT). The model was trained and tested on a flood inventory superimposed with 14 flood influencing factors, namely slope, elevation, aspect, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), topographic wetness index (TWI), slope length, land use, geology, soil type, topographic roughness index (TRI), rainfall, distance from rivers, plan and profile curvature. The model was compared against other mapping techniques and produced an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.901 outperforming others. The generated susceptibility map deduced the presence of low elevation, high rainfall and close proximity to rivers as major factors leading up to the disaster. It prophesizes a very high flood risk for approximately 18.32% of the study area concentrated in the northern and western part of the study region.

A review on entomophagy: Natural food insects for ethnic and tribal communities of North-East India

Entomophagy insects are local food/ feed in most parts of the North Malay Archipelago. These insects are a standard natural resource that provides food and economical safety to most ethnic groups of Eastern Himalayas. Entomophagy not only supports the nutritional food security, but also provides the family livelihood to the tribal populations during difficult times of the year. Since, edible insects are great source of supplemental food item that would meet the people’s present and future need, they’re preferred by tribal communities as eggs, nymphs, larvae, pupa and adults insects, and eaten as fried, cooked, roasted or are even consumed as raw repeatedly. In India, a complete of 245 species, 50 families and 10 orders of edible insects have been recorded so far as food and it’s mostly practiced in eight North Eastern States of India. Among the edible species of insects, biggest consumption is of coleopteran species with 24.69%, followed by Hemiptera (22.63%), Orthoptera (17.28%), Hymanoptera (13.17%), Odonata (10.70%), Lepidoptera (5.35%), Isoptera (2.88%), Dictyoptera (2.06%) and therefore the least were Diptera (0.41%) and Ephimeroptera (0.82%). Study of edible insect in India evolved the uncharted natural resources of north-east region and medicinal, traditional beliefs of tribal people. This review paper discuss about the common edible insects consumed by different ethnic and tribal communities in North-east India.

Recent trends and impacts of climate change in North-Eastern region of India-A review

The economy of North-Eastern (NE) region of India predominantly depends on farming, where only 12% of geographical area is available for cultivation out of which more than 85% is rain fed. Climate change has become a major concern in agriculture today, as farmers in many regions are struggling to cope with changing temperatures and rainfall pattern. Moreover, extreme weather situations like droughts, floods, heat and cold waves pose serious threat to food security, especially for small and marginal farmers. This review paper discusses the climate change in North-Eastern India based on the available climatic data from various published sources. Most of the analysis was performed on time series meteorological data recorded at different locations across the states of North-Eastern India namely, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. The increase in mean annual maximum temperature varied from 0.1°C per decade in Imphal (Manipur) to about 1.4°C per decade in Jharnapani (Nagaland). The changes were significant for all the states, except Sikkim. This region is one of the highest rainfall receiving regions of the world, but during February-March it faces water scarcity. The rainfall is projected to increase in 57 districts out of 78 districts, with some districts expected to experience almost 25% more rainfall than usual. The North-Eastern region of India has experienced notable changes in the pattern of major climatic variables such as rainfall and temperature. Average temperatures are projected to increase in almost all the districts of the region while annual rainfall is also reported to increase in almost 3/4th of the districts. The climate-induced natural disasters like drought, flood and hailstorms are the major threats of climate change and the incidence of these natural disasters are increasing in the recent years over the region.

Documenting the agriculture based indigenous traditional knowledge in Manipur State of North Eastern India

The North East Indian Himalayan Region (NEIHR) is bestowed with unique ethnicity and highly diversified biodiversity (flora and fauna) that are inherent to this region and inquisitive traditional practices. The region is a conservatory of indigenous knowledge and practices. NE agriculture has its own merit, demerit, diversity and complex system which distinguishes it from the mainland agriculture of the country. Indigenous knowledge used in agriculture in various parts of Manipur is still less explored. Keeping this as the foremost point, survey was undertaken for collecting information on traditional knowledge in 8 districts of 15 villages of Manipur for identifying the different indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) used in agriculture. Each district was surveyed and from each selected locality and interviewed through questionnaires for collecting relevant information on ITKs used in agriculture. Initially the detail information was collected from respondent farmers and further validated by triangulation method. 15 number of ITK has been documented and validated by triangulation method. There is a strong requisite to document and validate ITK before it gets lost with time. So, indigenous and modern approach may be combined as the so called “technology blending” for the evolution of new technology.

Financial Inclusion among Backward Communities: A Study of the Tea Garden Workers in Assam, India

Assam, a north-eastern state in India contributes the largest share in India’s total tea production. However, the workers in the tea gardens of the state are considered as one of the poor and marginalised sections of the population. The workers’ community has limited access to anti-poverty social security programmes and other social welfare schemes including formal financial services. Using primary data, this study examines the extent of financial inclusion among the tea garden workers in Assam. We study financial inclusion in terms of access to a bank account, credit and insurance. Our results reveal that financial inclusion among the workers has deepened considerably but not in all dimensions. We find education as an important determinant of financial inclusion among the tea garden workers in Assam. To make the process of financial inclusion among the tea garden workers more expeditious and comprehensive, specific initiatives towards delivering government-sponsored schemes are needed.

Education Scenario in India: Conflict-Ridden States of Jammu and Kashmir (Pre-370 Abrogation) And the North-East

Conflict impinges on the every-day lives of those impacted. It slowly creeps into the vital institutions of the society and withers away the system’s ability to absorb its ill-effects further and as a result, the system sometimes breaks down completely. The deep impact conflict has on the educational institutions can be gauged from the fact that in the ongoing conflicts around the world, educational institutions have deliberately been targeted. Not only this, education as a whole is also impacted by the displacements and migrations forcing many students to drop out of the system losing a lifetime opportunity of bringing positive changes in their lives. The state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been witnessing the situations of conflict for the last few decades and as a result, border skirmishes are frequent which forces the communities to flee for safety away from their native places. A similar kind of situation, but with a different nature, exists in the North-Eastern states of India. The conflict there has been ethnic in nature and adversely impacts the education. This article is an attempt to study the interplay of conflict and education in the conflict-ridden states in India and to put forward a comparative analysis.

A NEW SIZE RECORD OF HILSA, TENUALOSA ILISHA (HAM., 1822) FROM HOOGHLY ESTUARY, WEST BENGAL

The Hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton, 1822), occurs in foreshore areas, estuaries, brackish-water lakes and freshwater rivers of the western division of the Indo-Pacific region. It is well known as a delicious, high priced fish of commercial and cultural importance, especially in state of West Bengal and the North Eastern states of India as well as Bangladesh. Along the Indian coast of Bay of Bengal, the Hooghly estuarine system is one of the largest and most productive estuaries and is an important migratory route of the anadromous hilsa. The estuarine system is constituted by the first offshoot of river Gangathe Bhagirathi, which flows southwards through the lower Ganga deltaic plains and joins Bay of Bengal in Sunderbans. Hilsa shad is the most economically significant fishery of the system and it is a major contributor to the total fish landings of this system. Hydrological alterations in the form of barrages and dams built across the major east and west coast rivers, especially along the Ganges and Narmada have blocked its migratory routes to breeding grounds in riverine areas, resulting in the collapse of its fishery in the river stretches above these barrages and as a result, hilsa landing is now concentrated in estuarine part of these rivers (Raja, 1985; De, 1998). After commissioning of the Farakka barrage in 1975, the hilsa fishery is confined to downstream of the barrage, the Hooghly-Bhagirathi system. The indiscriminate exploitation of hilsa adults as well as juveniles during the past years has caused the decline of the once lucrative commercial fisheries of the fish, more particularly along the Hooghly estuary, due to recruitment failure. The comparison of time scale mean size recorded from Hooghly-Bhagirathi river system over past years indicated a declining trend and an increasing contribution of smaller size groups in the catch pointing towards the growth overfishing of hilsa populations. The aim of this paper represents a new record size of hilsa with record fecundity from Hooghly estuarine system

BIOLOGYOF BADIS BADIS (HAM., 1822) FROM NORTH EASTERN HILL REGION

Badis badis or dwarf chameleon fish, also known as the blue perch or badis belongs to family Badidae of the order Perciformes. Hamilton (1822) described Labrus badis and L. dario from Gangetic provinces. Bleeker (1854) established genus Badis for L. badis under family Nandidae. Barlow et al. (1968) coined the new family, Badidae, in which Badis has been incorporated based on osteological characters. The genus is separated from the Nandid genus Nandus in having a smooth opercular margin and endentuloustoungue. As per Kullander and Britz (2002) the genus Badis is characterized by combination of the following features: Operculum with a single sharp spine at it posterior corner; spinous and soft dorsal fins continuous, the base of the soft part of the fin is longer than that of the spinous part; anal fin with three spines; lateral line pores tubed and interrupted; jaws, vomer and palatines with villiform teeth; scales both ctenoid and cycloid, 2-4 dentary formula; hypobranchial 3-toothed; males with short pelvic fin, not reaching the 1st dorsal spine; short dorsal fin lappets; rounded caudal fin (Geetakumari and Kudu, 2011). When Hamilton described this species he did so without preserving any specimens, therefore to avoid confusion with similar-looking congeners, Kullander and Britz (2002) designated a neotype, which was collected from the Tumapao River, a tributary of the Ganges located 65km north of Calcutta. B. badis commonly inhabits paddy fields, ponds and small streams and are found to be distributed in all the North Eastern States of India (Mahapatra et al., 2004).

Molecular characterization of Vibrio cholerae O1 strains circulating in Assam: a north eastern state of India

Background and Objectives:Information on the genetic epidemiology of cholera in Assam, a northeastern state of India is lacking despite cholera being a major public health problem. The study aimed to determine the virulence genes and genes encoding antibiotic resistance in Vibrio cholerae isolates and to determine the prevalent genotypes based on the presence or absence of the virulence genes and ctxB genotype.Materials and Methods:Twenty-five V. cholerae strains were subjected to conventional biotyping and serotyping followed by multiplex PCR to detect ctxA, ctxB, zot, ace, O1rfb, tcpA, ompU, ompW, rtxC, hly and toxR and antibiotic resistance genes. Cholera toxin B (ctxB) gene was amplified followed by sequencing.Results:All the V. cholerae O1 isolates were El Tor Ogawa and showed the presence of the core toxin region representing the genome of the filamentous bacteriophage CTXø. The complete cassette of virulence genes was seen in 48% of the isolates which was the predominant genotype. All the isolates possessed amino acid sequences identical to the El Tor ctxB subunit of genotype 3. sulII gene was detected in 68% of the isolates, dfrA1 in 88%, strB in 48% and SXT gene was detected in 36% of the isolates.Conclusion:Toxigenic V. cholerae O1 El Tor Ogawa strains of ctxB genotype 3 carrying a large pool of virulence genes are prevailing in Assam. Presence of a transmissible genetic element SXT in 36% of the strains is of major concern as it indicates the emergence of multiple drug resistance among the V. cholerae isolates.

Ethnobotanical Study of Underutilized Wild Edible Fruits and their Antibacterial Activity against Human Pathogens

Nine underutilized wild edible fruits collected from four districts of Tripura, a North-Eastern state of India were studied for the antibacterial properties against five (5) human pathogens, Escherichia coli (Gram–Ve, ATCC-2522), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram–Ve, ATCC-27853), Salmonella typhi (Gram –Ve, ATCC-14028), Staphylococcus aureus (Gram +Ve, ATCC-25923) and Klebsiella pneumonia (Gram–Ve, ATCC-700603) by disk diffusion method. Besides, the folk medicinal values and their ethnobotanical importance are also reported. Out of the nine (9) wild edible fruits, C. macroptera and S. dulcis showed the least antibacterial effect against all the bacterial pathogens under the present study. On the other hand, G. gummi-gutta and A. lacucha showed considerable antibacterial effects against all of the bacterial pathogens with the highest zone of inhibition against E. coli, followed by P. aeruginosa. Selective inhibitory effect of some of the wild edible fruits was also observed against the targeted pathogens. This study paves the way for using the underutilized wild fruits of the North-Eastern region of India as a potential source of antipathogenic activity of human pathogens. Further, a detailed study may help in identifying the bioactive compound of industrial importance.

Genetic diversity and population structure of Clerodendrum serratum (L.) Moon using CBDP, iPBS and SCoT markers

An investigation into the level of genetic diversity and population structure of medicinally important endangered Clerodendrum serratum was conducted for the first time in Manipur, a North-Eastern state of India, using CAAT box-derived polymorphism (CBDP), inter primer binding site (iPBS), and start codon targeted (SCoT) markers. The comparative analysis of the three marker systems revealed SCoT to be the most effective among other markers in detecting polymorphism and genotype differentiation. Mantel test revealed a positive correlation between CBDP and iPBS (r = 0.22), SCoT and CBDP (r = 0.48), and iPBS and SCoT (r = 0.62), indicating the effectiveness of each marker system and reliability of using them in conjunction with one another to generate accurate and consistent results. Marker analysis disclosed a moderately high estimate of moderately high gene flow (Nm = 1.133) between the populations which resulted in low genetic differentiation (Gst = 0.310) among populations. Mantel test disclosed a non-significant correlation between the geographic and genetic distances between the 8 different populations of C. serratum. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed the existence of genetic variation (66 %) within the population and the remaining variation (34 %) among the populations. Unweighted pair group arithmetic mean method (UPGMA) dendrograms constructed based on pooled CBDP, iPBS, SCoT marker data produced clusters similar to the pattern generated by the two-dimensional principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Bayesian model STRUCTURE analysis of C. serratum populations based on CBDP, iPBS, and SCoT markers gave three genetic clusters (K = 3), but the pooled marker data generated 5 different genetic groups with high admixture. GENELAND further assigned the 8 populations comprising 97 individual genotypes into two main genetic pools. The genetic information obtained from the present investigation will contribute to offering proper recommendations for the effective management and conservation of endangered C. serratum plants in the region.

A review on the plant secondary metabolites with special context with North East India

&lt;p&gt;Extracting phytochemicals or phytocompounds for the upliftment of general health and sustainability is one of the greatest needs of the millennium. Plants have immense quality in regards to secondary metabolites although not required for general growth and development yet are very much necessary for forming a protective gear and maintaining homeostasis. With their immense diversity in curing various diseases, these plants' secondary metabolites are therefore must be put forth and give much importance in generation and production from the root level to the mission worldwide. Along with the increasing cases of failure in the usage of chemotherapeutic drugs and its utilities, the implementation of secondary metabolites for its various medicinal characteristic in the therapeutic cases are also increasing in demand. With the increasing demand for Ayurveda treatment and the popularity of the mass for it can be positively taken up as a means of earning capita and making self- sustained. North-Eastern states of India in this regard are a vital source of income and also a media to generate and bringing indigenous products to the world.&lt;/p&gt;