Set Of Villages Research Articles

Impact of Creating Awareness About Birth Preparedness and Complications Readiness Amongst Pregnant Women of Remote Communities with Extreme Poverty and Access Problems

Background: Although antenatal care sets in road to safety of mother and baby, birth affects pregnancy outcome most. Birth preparedness, complications readiness (BPCR) during pregnancy become essential, especially for rural women who have scarce health services, resources and access problems. Objectives: Community based study was carried out to know about impact of creating BPCR awareness to rural, tribal pregnant women. Material and methods: Study was conducted in 100 villages, randomly divided into 50 studies and 50 controls. Minimum 10 from each village, 15 to 39 years old, 1040 pregnant women, became study subjects. BPCR awareness was tried with maximum 5 sessions. Some women had only one session, because of inclusion from mid pregnancy, research assistant’s fixed visits, women’s availability. Ten randomly included women from each village in control set of villages, with no BPCR sessions, 1000 became study subjects. Pregnancy outcome was collected in study, as well as control villages. Results: Of 115 women who could have only one session, 45.2% found session useful, 16.5% of them had home births, 40.9% at Subcentre, 5.2% District hospital, 11.3% Referral hospital, 96.5% had live births, 3.5% stillbirths, 6.3% neonatal deaths occurred. Of 475 women who had 2-3 sessions, 77.1% found sessions useful, 3.6% had HBs, 42.3% at SC, 35.8% primary health centre, 30 (6.3%) DH, 12% RH, with 100% LBs, 1.1% NNDs. Of 450 women who had 4-5 sessions, 84.9% said sessions were very useful, 0.7% had HBs, 42.7% at SC, 38% PHC, 6.4% DH, 12.2% at RH, no SB, 1.6% NNDs. Of 1000 women who were not given BPCR awareness sessions, 40.4% had HB, 32.4% SC, 19.2% PHC, 2.8% DH, 5.2% RH, 92.7% had LBs, 7.3 SBs, 11.3% NNDs, no maternal death. Conclusion: BPCR awareness helped increase facility births, improved neonatal outcome, especially with more sessions.

Sosialisasi Bahaya Penyalahgunaan Narkoba bagi Generasi Muda dan Penanggulangannya di Desa Naumbai

Teenagers are the most important heritage that determines the future. It is well known teenagers needs guidance in ensuring their physical and mental growth. Drug abuse is not a fundamental problem in the community, but has become a very complex problem that requires prevention and an active community role that is carried out consistently and professionally. Circulation and abuse of drugs currently occurs not only in big cities in Indonesia, but also in villages. The method of application in this activity is by lecture and question and answer. This community service activity method uses the seminar method. The socialization was held on August 9, 2022 in the Naumbai Village Office Hall attended by a set of villages, Naumbai Village youth and Indra Wahyudi as BNN counselors as presenters. In the material, it was emphasized that various important points will occur if we avoid from drugs and how to deal it.

Can Restoration of the Commons Reduce Rural Vulnerability? A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of COVID-19 Livelihood-based Coping Strategies among Rural Households in Three Indian States

India has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of a larger quasi-experimental impact assessment, we assess the pandemic’s effects on household coping behavior in 80 villages spread across four districts and three states (n = 772). Half of these villages were targeted by a largescale common land restoration program spearheaded by an NGO, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). The other half are yet to be targeted but are statistically similar vis-à-vis FES’s village targeting criteria. Analyzing the results of a phone survey administered eight to ten months into the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, we find that the livelihood activities of households in both sets of villages were adversely impacted by COVID-19. Consequently, most households had to resort to various negative coping behaviors, e.g., distressed asset sales and reduced farm input expenditure. From the same mobile survey data, we construct a Livelihoods Coping Strategies Index (LCSI) and find that households in villages targeted by FES’s common land restoration initiative score 11.3% lower on this index on average, equating to a 4.5 percentage point difference. While modest, this statistically significant effect estimate (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05) is consistent across the four districts and robust to alterative model and outcome specifications. We find no empirical support that our observed effect was due to improved access to common pool resources or government social programs. Instead, we speculate that this effect may be driven by institutional factors, rather than economic, a proposition we will test in future work.

Microfinance competition and multiple borrowing: Evidence using panel data from Bangladesh

AbstractWe examine the causes and consequences of multiple borrowing in rural Bangladesh using long‐term household and village panel data covering the years 2000–2014. We find that the sharply growing number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in a wider set of villages over time coincides with a corresponding increase in household borrowing from multiple MFIs and households accessing loans generally as well as significant rises in the total values of household assets, especially in the form of agricultural equipment. Although the increasing number of MFIs resulted in some households borrowing to repay previous loans, the fraction of such households is relatively small.

Living With Floods: A Comparative Assessment of Resilience to Floods in Tal and Diara Regions of Malda District, West Bengal

Tal and Diara regions of Malda district are extremely prone to floods, still, report higher population density than the state's average density. This indicates that the local population has learned to live with floods by developing resilience to the flood threat through better preparedness, coping, and adaptive strategies. Such micro-level strategies developed by the local people can be useful to policymakers and social scientists alike in terms of better mitigating the flood menace and associated vulnerability. This paper attempts to measure and compare the level of flood resilience of the local people living in Tal and Diara at the household level. Furthermore, the article aims to analyse whether the distance from the major flood-causing rivers, viz. Fulhar in Tal and Ganga in Diara play a role in the degree of resilience of the population to floods. The paper is empirical, where information has been collected from sample households and focus group discussion with village elders in two sets of villages, i.e., Maniknagar and Ratua in Tal and Gopalpur and Nurpur in Diara. The UNDP technique has been used to compute the composite Resilience Index (RI) consisting of Preparedness Index (PI), Immediate Coping Index (ICI), and Adaptive Index (AI). The findings suggest that the villages located in and around the levees of major flood-causing rivers, viz. Maniknagar in Tal and Gopalpur in Diara records a higher level of resilience to floods in comparison to the interior villages, viz. Ratua in Tal and Nurpur in Diara. The paper concludes that in both Tal and Diara, people have learned to cope and adapt to floods and that the closer the distance from the major flood-causing rivers, the higher the villagers' resilience to flood hazards.

Can Restoration of the Commons Foster Resilience? A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of COVID-19 Coping Strategies among Rural Households in Three Indian States

India has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of a larger quasi-experimental impact assessment, we assess the pandemic’s effects on coping behavior in 80 villages spread across four districts and three states (n=772). Half of these villages were targeted by a largescale common land restoration program spearheaded by an NGO, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). The other half are yet to be targeted but are statistically similar vis-à-vis FES’s village targeting criteria. Analyzing the results of a phone survey conducting eight to ten months into the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, we find that the livelihood activities of households in both sets of villages were adversely impacted by COVID-19. Consequently, most households had to resort to various coping strategies, e.g., distressed asset sales and reduced farm input expenditure. From the same mobile survey data, we further construct a Livelihoods Coping Strategies Index (LCSI) and find that households in villages targeted by FES’s common land restoration initiative score 11.3% lower on this index on average. While modest, this statistically significant effect estimate (p<0.05) is consistent across the four districts and robust to alterative model and outcome specifications. We find no empirical support that our observed effect was due to improved access to common pool resources or government social programs. Instead, we speculate that this effect may be driven by institutional factors, rather than economic, a proposition we will test in future work.

Clinical Benefits of Supervised Home Care of the Morbidity Management and Disability Prevention Under National Filariasis Elimination Programme.

Introduction: Mass drug administration and morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) though considered as two pillars of global program for elimination of filariasis, implementation of MMDP was disregarded in several endemic countries. Limb hygiene is the main component of MMDP and to address its overall clinical benefits, a community-based study was undertaken in three sets of populations. Materials and Methods: After obtaining written informed consent, clinical, quality of life (QoL) assessments were carried out and lymphedema volume was measured for three groups of lymphedema patients at intake, at 6, and 12 months follow-up. Filarial lymphedema patients from three sets of villages categorized as "Previous VCRC MMDP," "State MMDP," and "Current VCRC MMDP" were considered for the study. Clinical examination and QoL assessment were carried out independently by a medical officer and a sociologist, respectively. Whoever available at the time of three field visits were registered and included in the study. In total, 67, 63, 66 and 75, 74 and 63 lymphedema (LE) patients completed clinical evaluation and QoL assessment from these groups, respectively. Results: Assessment of repeated measures of clinical parameters at baseline and two time points of follow-up by Friedman's test showed significant clinical improvements in skin color, texture, moisture, and ulcer (p > 0.05), in nails score and intertrigo score (p > 0.01). Assessed by Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a significant reduction in the frequency Acute Dermato-Lymphangio-Adenitis episodes at 12 months follow-up in all the three MMDP groups (p < 0.001). However, the reduction of LE volume was significant (p = 0.009) only in the current Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) MMDP group. There was no significant improvement in the QoL in all three groups. Conclusions: To achieve the desired clinical benefits by MMDP home care practices for the filarial lymphedema patients, regular monitoring by the auxiliary health workers is essential. National programs must consider monthly supervision through an integrated approach.

Conditional cash transfers, uptake of maternal and child health services, and health outcomes in western rural China

BackgroundEmpirical evidence suggests that the uptake of maternal and child health (MCH) services is still low in poor rural areas of China. There is concern that this low uptake may detrimentally affect child health outcomes. Previous studies have not yet identified the exact nature of the impact that a conditional cash transfer (CCT) has on the uptake of MCH services and, ultimately, on child health outcomes. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between CCT, uptake of MCH services, and health outcomes among children in poor rural areas of western China.MethodsWe designated two different sets of villages and households that were used as comparisons against which outcomes of the treated households could be assessed. In 2014, we conducted a large-scale survey of 1522 households in 75 villages (including 25 treatment and 50 comparison) from nine nationally designated poverty counties in two provinces of China. In each village, 21 households were selected based on their eligibility status for the CCT program. Difference-in-difference analyses were used to assess the impact of CCT on outcomes in terms of both intention-to-treat (ITT) and average-treatment-effects-on-the-treated (ATT).ResultsOverall, the uptake of MCH services in the sample households were low, especially in terms of postpartum care visits, early breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and physical examination of the baby. The uptake of the seven types of MCH services in the CCT treatment villages were significantly higher than that in the comparison villages. The results from both the ITT and ATT analyses showed that the CCT program had a positive, although small, impact on the uptake of MCH services and the knowledge of mothers of MCH health issues. Nonetheless, the CCT program had no noticeable effect on child health outcomes.ConclusionsThe CCT program generated modest improvements in the uptake of MCH services and mothers’ knowledge of MCH services in poor rural areas of Western China. These improvements, however, did not translate into substantial improvements in child health outcomes for two potential reasons: poor CCT implementation and the low quality of rural health facilities.

Freshwater fisheries conservation can increase biodiversity.

We evaluate the impact of a fisheries management program centered on the definition of Fish Conservation Zones on biodiversity, measured as the number of species caught in the last 12 months. Data comes from a set of 32 villages in central Lao PDR, of which half participated in the program, and the remaining are a set of matched control villages. The estimated causal effects are large (an increase between 29 and 32 species) and robust to the potential importance of unmeasured confounders. We also show that initial conditions may matter, as the program seems particularly effective in villages with high probability of participating in the program. These results are particularly important given the paucity of evidence regarding the impact of conservation programs on biodiversity, particularly in the context of freshwater ecosystems. Further directions of research suggested by these results are discussed.

Tribal and Non-Tribal Farmers’ Land Rights and Food Security Promotion in Telangana

This article examines and compares the status of land rights and their impacts on agricultural productivity, food security and well-being in a set of tribal and non-tribal villages in Telangana. Based on an intensive field survey, the research confirms that tribals without formal land rights remain largely unable to benefit from government support and access to private institutions in terms of getting credit and farm extension, whereas in non-tribal villages, government organisations are pro-active in providing such support. These findings confirm the need to increase the effectiveness of land rights and title documentation in India’s tribal villages to protect local people’s investments in land, enhance agricultural productivity and strengthen the long-term effectiveness of government programmes, which include avoidance of migration to the big cities.

Restricting trade and reducing variety: Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract The study of consumption in poor households usually focuses on the costs of the consumption basket rather than its composition. In contrast, we investigate the variety in consumption using unique data on a set of remote villages in northwestern Ethiopia. We examine the loss in variety in household consumption in remote locations, relying on a purpose-designed longitudinal survey over two years, where villages differ only in distance to the market and are homogeneous otherwise. In addition, we exploit a change in policy which resulted in a crackdown on informal, unlicensed traders in the second year and affected only the more remote set of villages. Variety in household consumption of manufactures falls with distance and time to travel to the main market town. The crackdown on informal traders, as a quasi-experiment resulting in an increase in travel costs, also leads to a relative decrease in variety consumed of manufactured goods for households served by the unlicensed traders.

Miasta zdegradowane w województwie łódzkim w końcu I dekady XXI wieku

Miasta zdegradowane są ważnym składnikiem wiejskiej sieci osadniczej. Celem opracowania jest charakterystyka miejscowości położonych w obecnych granicach województwa łódzkiego, które utraciły status miasta, a także odpowiedź na pytanie, czy są na tym terenie jednostki osadnicze mające realne szanse na uzyskanie w niedalekiej przyszłości tego statusu. Zbiór miejscowości omówiony w artykule obejmuje wszystkie byłe miasta, które zostały zdegradowane przed 2010 r. Badania pokazały, że na obszarze województwa łódzkiego jest ich relatywnie dużo (aż 73), co jest konsekwencją dekretu carskiego, pozbawiającego w II połowie XIX w. praw miejskich wielu ówczesnych miast w granicach zaboru rosyjskiego.

Madrasah for Girls and Private School for Boys? The Determinants of School Type Choice in Rural and Urban Indonesia

Using a nationally representative data set of Indonesian households and villages, we study the determinants of enrolment in Islamic schools (i.e., madrasahs) and private non-religious vis-a-vis public non-religious schools. Multinomial logit estimates indicate that madrasahs systematically attract children from poorer households, rural locations, and less educated parents while the opposite is true for private school enrolment. Moreover, girls are significantly more likely to be in madrasahs, irrespective of their locations, while boys enjoy a higher probability of enrolment in non-madrasah schools, particularly in urban areas.A significant of household income remains even after factoring out the influence of child characteristics, parental background, and village characteristics. Therefore policies that reduce household poverty are likely to reduce demand for Islamic schooling. However, the presence of a girl effect in madrasah enrolment independent of household income and location factors is puzzling and underscores the need to better understand the socio-cultural determinants of school choice in Indonesia.

Application of graph theory to the morphological analysis of settlements

AbstractIn the following paper, the analyses of morphology of settlements were conducted using graph methods. The intention of the author was to create a quantifiable and simple measure, which, in a quantitative way, would express the degree of development of a graph (the spatial pattern of settlement). When analysing examples of graphs assigned to a set of small towns and large villages, it was noticed that the graph development index should depend on: a relative number of edges in relation to the number of nodes (β index), the number of cycles (urban blocks), which evidences the complexity of the spatial pattern of settlement, and the average rank of nodes of a graph, which expresses the degree of complexity of a street network.

Telecommunication externality on migration: Evidence from Chinese villages

We use a unique data set of Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications, in particular, landline phones, increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, our difference-in-difference estimation shows that the access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 51% of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access on job opportunities and especially timely contact with left-behind family members. Our findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.

Reduction in symptomatic malaria prevalence through proactive community treatment in rural Senegal.

We piloted a community-based proactive malaria case detection model in rural Senegal to evaluate whether this model can increase testing and treatment and reduce prevalence of symptomatic malaria in target communities. Home care providers conducted weekly sweeps of every household in their village throughout the transmission season to identify patients with symptoms of malaria, perform rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) on symptomatic patients and provide treatment for positive cases. The model was implemented in 15 villages from July to November 2013, the high transmission season. Fifteen comparison villages were chosen from those implementing Senegal's original, passive model of community case management of malaria. Three sweeps were conducted in the comparison villages to compare prevalence of symptomatic malaria using difference in differences analysis. At baseline, prevalence of symptomatic malaria confirmed by RDT for all symptomatic individuals found during sweeps was similar in both sets of villages (P=0.79). At end line, prevalence was 16 times higher in the comparison villages than in the intervention villages (P=0.003). Adjusting for potential confounders, the intervention was associated with a 30-fold reduction in odds of symptomatic malaria in the intervention villages (AOR=0.033; 95% CI: 0.017, 0.065). Treatment seeking also increased in the intervention villages, with 57% of consultations by home care providers conducted between sweeps through routine community case management. This pilot study suggests that community-based proactive case detection reduces symptomatic malaria prevalence, likely through more timely case management and improved care seeking behaviour. A randomised controlled trial is needed to further evaluate the impact of this model.

Telecommunication Externality on Migration: Evidence from Chinese Villages

We use a unique data set of Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications, in particular, landline phones, increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, our difference-in-differences (DID) estimation shows that the access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2.1 percentage points, or about 54 percent of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access on job opportunities and timely contact with left-behind family members. Our findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.

Influence of human activity patterns on epidemiology of plague in Western Usambara Mountains, Tanzania.

Human plague has been a recurring public health threat in some villages in the Western Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, in the period between 1980 and 2004. Despite intensive past biological and medical research, the reasons for the plague outbreaks in the same set of villages remain unknown. Plague research needs to broaden its scope and formulate new hypotheses. This study was carried out to establish relationships between the nature and the spatial extent of selected human activities on one hand, and the reported plague cases on the other hand. Three outdoor activities namely, fetching water, collecting firewood and going to the market, were selected. Through enquiries the activity patterns related to these activities were mapped in 14 villages. Standard deviation ellipses represent the extent of action spaces. Over 130 activity types were identified and listed. Of these, fetching water, collecting firewood and going to the market were used for further analysis. The results indicate a significant correlation between the plague frequency and the size of these action spaces. Different characteristics of land use and related human activities were correlated with the plague frequency at village and hamlet levels. Significant relationships were found between plague frequency and specific sources of firewood and water, and specific market places.

Description and analysis of the poultry trading network in the Lake Alaotra region, Madagascar: Implications for the surveillance and control of Newcastle disease

Madagascar's 36.5-million-head poultry industry holds a foremost place in its economy and the livelihood of its people. Unfortunately, regular Newcastle disease outbreaks associated with high mortality causes high losses for smallholders and threatens their livelihood. Therefore, Madagascar is seeking concrete, achievable and sustainable methods for the surveillance and the control of Newcastle disease. In this paper, we present and analyze the results of a field study conducted in Madagascar between December 2009 and December 2010. The study area was the Lac Alaotra region, a landlocked area in the north-eastern part of the country's center. Poultry trading is suspected of playing a major role in the spread of avian diseases, especially in developing countries characterized by many live-bird markets and middlemen. Therefore, the goals of our study were to: (i) describe and analyze smallholders’ poultry trading network in the Lake Alaotra region using social network analysis; (ii) assess the role of the network in the spread of Newcastle disease; and (iii) propose the implementation of a targeted disease surveillance based on the characteristics of the poultry trading network. We focused our field study on the harvesting of two data sets. The first is a complete description of the poultry trading network in the landlocked area of Lac Alaotra, including a description of the poultry movements between groups of villages. The second set of data measures the occurrence of outbreaks in the same area by combining a participatory approach with an event-based surveillance method. These data were used to determine the attributes of the network, and to statistically assess the association between the position of nodes and the occurrence of outbreaks. By using social network analysis techniques combined with a classification method and a logistic model, we finally identified 3 nodes (set of villages), of the 387 in the initial network, to focus on for surveillance and control in the Lac Alaotra area. This result is of primary importance in the ongoing efforts to effectively improve the wellbeing of people in the region.

Why “belief” is hard work

Comment on Luhrmann, Tanya. 2012. When God talks back: Understanding the American Evangelical relationship with God. New York: Alfred E. Knopf.