Sociocultural Experiences Research Articles

Gender-based violence in South Africa: A narrative reflection

The pervasiveness of gender-based violence (GBV) against women and children constitutes the most severe expression of discrimination and dehumanisation of women and children in South Africa. Even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic came, domestic violence was already one of the greatest human rights violations. Women for centuries suffered different forms of violation and continue to struggle in subtle forms in the 21st century. This article investigates the sociocultural theories, narrative reflections and COVID-19 pandemic challenges associated with the prevalence of GBV in South Africa. The article argues that patriarchal culture, religion, gender norms, lockdown and violence in South Africa perpetuate gender-based abuse. Therefore, the article unfolds this research through a literature review and narrative approach which is used to allow the co-researchers to share their stories. The article embarks on sociocultural experiences, the scourge of GBV in South Africa, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, qualitative interviews and theological reflections and concludes by suggesting future possibilities to fight GBV.Contribution: This article contributes to an understanding that abafazi nabantwana baphefumla ngenxeba [women and children are breathing through the wound] amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the prevalence of GBV, the intersection of religious cultural effects, social sciences, gender inequality and the continued oppression of women and children.

Syrian Newcomer Students’ Feelings and Attitudes Regarding Their Education in Canada

The purpose of this paper is to share and discuss our research findings on the experiences of Syrian refugee students in elementary public schools in a southwestern region of Ontario, Canada. We used Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a frame to guide this study. Data collection involved an anonymous questionnaire completed by the students. The majority of the students experienced interruptions to their education prior to resettlement in Canada. The students reported positive resettlement and socio-cultural experiences in Canada, however, some of them faced difficulties with their learning.
 Key words: Syrian refugee students; resettlement; school experiences in Canada

Representation of a `positive experience' of surrogacy in Yazd, Iran: A qualitative study.

The social and cultural challenges facing surrogate mothers have been explored in several studies. However, few studies have discussed the motivations of surrogate mothers, their expressions and interpretations of their lived experiences, and their feelings of personal and spiritual satisfaction. This study aims to present the positive experiences of surrogate mothers from a phenomenological perspective. Using a phenomenological approach, this study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021 in the city of Yazd, Iran. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data among 12 participants with at least 1 experience of surrogate motherhood. Our findings showed that, despite having had harsh physical and socio-cultural experiences such as fear of social labeling and stigma, participants felt a kind of inner satisfaction and a positive view of their actions. A core theme found in the study was mothers' satisfaction. The main categories included feminine self-sacrifice and positive rewards. Feminine self-sacrifice included 2 sub-categories: creating happiness and conveying motherly feelings, while positive rewards included good childbirth, family acceptance, and halal income. This study showed that surrogate mothers experience conflicting feelings of inner satisfaction and social stigma during surrogacy. Some of those interviewed were willing to go through surrogacy again, but they feared social labeling and stigma, being misunderstood by others who are not fully informed about surrogacy, and being subjected to family and social disapproval.

Between Stigma and Status: The Experiences of Generation Z Ghanaian Female Taekwondo Athletes

This study set out to explore the socio-cultural experiences of five female taekwondo athletes within the age brackets of Generation Z in relation to their taekwondo practice. Using the ground theory approach, the five athletes were subjected to open interviews, with three of them again subjected to focus group discussion to reach theoretical saturation. The results show that although taekwondo practice, as with other martial arts, is expected to break gender barriers and discrimination in society, in the socio-cultural context of Ghanaian society, female taekwondo practitioners are considered by many as socially undesirable. They are taunted as “man-women,” which connotes a tomboy lifestyle that is believed to predispose women who practice martial arts to develop masculine features and physical aggression toward their future husbands. On the other side of their experience, the athletes attain high status when the media profiles them on television for their achievements in taekwondo tournaments. Together with their social media activities, as members of Generation Z are accustomed to, they earn a lot of friends and endorsement. These two contrasting experiences of the five participants in the study were explained within the theoretical constructs of stigmatization and status conferral. The study concludes that the socio-cultural experiences of these female taekwondo practitioners are context specific, and therefore, more insights are needed across jurisdictions for wider theorization. Meanwhile, stakeholders need to step up in their efforts to disabuse the minds of Ghanaians regarding the mistaken perceptions about taekwondo if martial arts are to be used as social re-engineering tools for female empowerment.

Sexual health and intimacy after cancer treatment in women of color: A systematic review.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment can significantly affect women's sexual health and intimacy, leading to diminished quality of life in survivorship. The perspectives and experiences of women of color (WOC) with cancer are critical to inform comprehensive, inclusive sexual wellbeing care in survivorship. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize contemporary literature describing sexual wellbeing experiences of WOC treated for cancer. A comprehensive search of CINAHL, PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo and Scopus identified studies that addressed sex and intimacy of U.S. WOC treated for cancer published in the last 15years. The authors identified emergent themes from the literature through thematic content analysis. Eighteen studies (10 qualitative, 8 quantitative) met the inclusion criteria, all with breast or gynecologic cancer samples. Studies include African American (13), Asian American (3), and Latina (10) women, as well as Non-Hispanic Whites and 'other' race/ethnicity women. Overarching themes identified were: 1) impacts of treatment on sexual health and body image, 2) process of accepting and overcoming, 3) value of an engaged and supportive partner, and 4) current clinical practice and barriers to sexual health care. WOC experience changes in sex and intimacy after cancer treatment, and experiences of sexual function, sexual communication, and sexual healthcare are often shaped by sociocultural experiences. An understanding of WOC's sexual health and intimacy after cancer treatment can inform inclusive, culturally responsive sexual health interventions.

The challenges for children’s rights in international child protection: Opportunities for transformation

Children’s rights highlight the priority of child protection internationally and require us to think about how protection is defined and conceptualised, whether protection efforts are working, and how we are carrying them out. Many scholars have noted the apparent conflict between the idea of children’s rights as universal and the particular realities of local contexts, understandings, and experiences. Some argue that the failures of child protection are due to the structure of the children's rights framework itself. However, we contend that the issues lie in traditional child protection systems and frameworks, and how children's rights are (or are not) understood and operationalised by child protection actors. Relying on a narrative literature review, this conceptual paper presents several examples in support of this view, and argues that more work needs to be done to contextualize and secure the rights of children in need of protection. We explore the complex interplay between local and global interpretations of rights and recommend that dialogue among actors with different perspectives and socio-cultural experiences of children’s rights will produce richer understandings and practices of them. This dialogue can support the transformation of the current international child protection system to support the ability of children, their families and caregivers to realise children’s rights and support their thriving.

Implementing Sociolinguistics Competence Teaching Strategies in Classroom Settings and Their Impact on Students’ Reading Behavior

Language learning and teaching are related to sociolinguistics in several ways. Various social factors influence language teaching and learning. Many countries today seek to develop their educational systems through the use of new educational strategies to keep pace with the current developments and to achieve satisfactory educational results, as education is considered a real investment for any country and its people. This calls for good use of new educational strategies in preparing students and teachers, developing curricula, and diversifying teaching methods, to develop the educational process and provide better teaching and learning. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effect of implementing sociolinguistic competence teaching strategies on students' reading behavior in the classroom. By using the descriptive-analytical approach and developing a questionnaire tool that revolves around the subject of study. The results of the study concluded that there is a statistically significant positive impact of sociolinguistic competence teaching strategies on students' reading behavior in the classroom at α≤ 0.05, and this significant impact is due to the improvement in text-breaking, text-using, and text-analyzing abilities. The study also revealed that there are several difficulties and factors that limit the efficiency of sociolinguistic competence teaching strategies in the Salahaddin University/ English Department classroom including the complex factor of the reading text, and the environmental variables surrounding the student, their reading comprehension anxiety a many other factors that should be taken into consideration to increase sociolinguistic competence in teaching languages. The researcher recommends the necessity of using emotional and social culture strategies that enhance the learner's ability to deal with his/her emotions and sociocultural experiences whilelearning the English language

Guest Editors' Introduction

Guest Editors' Introduction Min Wonjung (bio) and Dal Yong Jin (bio) In the 2020s, several elements from Korean culture, including the music of BTS, Bong Joon-ho's movie Parasite, and the TV drama Squid Game, penetrated both Western and non-Western cultural spheres. When the Korean Wave, referring to the rapid growth of Korean cultural industries and Korean cultural content's permeation of global cultural markets, started in the mid-1990s, the major target region was East Asia. Since the early 2010s, however, Korea has rapidly advanced into global cultural markets, including North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Korea has also expanded its cultural forms to be exported, from dramas, films, and K-pop to digital technologies and cultures, including digital games and webtoons (Longenecker and Lee 2018; Kim 2021; Yoon 2022). There have been several significant factors behind the recent growth of the Korean Wave in global cultural markets, including the increasing role of social media, the involvement of global capital in local cultural production, and shifts in people's cultural consumption habits in the OTT (over-the-top) platform era. While these elements playing essential roles in the Korean Wave are various, the concept of transnationalism allows for their understanding within a single theoretical framework. In other words, the Korean Wave in the global context since the 2010s is an example of the transnational circulation of popular culture [End Page 1] and digital media forms and practices, generating and deploying alternative media consumption and moving beyond conventional routes and infrastructures (Jin, Yoon, and Min 2021). Transnationality implies flows of people, culture, and information beyond national boundaries, and the Korean Wave has actualized flows of popular culture and digital technologies beyond national and regional boundaries. The Korean Wave is negotiated by different audiences and re-situated by different uses of cultural literacy for its translation and decoding. This special issue on Hallyu Storytelling in the Americas examines how the concepts of transnationalism, transnational proximity, and the universality of the Korean Wave have created a story encompassing an imaginary new continent that spans North and South America. The four articles included in this special issue were presented at the fourteenth Kyujanggak International Symposium on Korean Studies held via Zoom in Seoul, Korea on November 4–6, 2021. The panel examined how the Korean Wave is imagined and negotiated by different audiences and proposed new orientations for the Korean Wave in a post-pandemic world. This special issue discusses COVID-19's sociocultural impact on Korean Wave fandom and how that fandom has been strengthened in a pandemic environment. Specializing in the diverse sociocultural effects of the Korean Wave, the authors also address how different modes of storytelling and imagination have emerged and been negotiated by local audiences in North and South America. In the first article, "Transnational Proximity and Universality in Korean Culture: Analysis of Squid Game and BTS," Dal Yong Jin suggests a new approach to understanding the global popularity of the Korean Wave. Rather than traditional cultural proximity, he argues, transnational proximity based on similar sociocultural experiences in late capitalism—including social inequality, youth culture, beautiful storytelling, and fascinating choreography—can explain the Korean Wave's continuing prevalence. In his discussion, Jin investigates fan communities and several distinctive cultural programs in K-pop and Korean film and television, particularly BTS and Squid Game (2021). He concludes by assessing the prospects for the role of transnational proximity in the growth of local popular cultures in the global cultural sphere. In the second article, "Pandemic to "Fandomic:" The Revival of Fandom Publics in the Digital Space of Latin American K-pop Fandom," Hyunsuk Jang examines the ways in which individual fans coalesce into fandom publics, focusing on their affective intimacy. COVID-19 has dramatically changed our daily life. Fears about the virus inhibit face-to-face communication, leading people to spend more time in the digital world. Jang also examines how the [End Page 2] pandemic has impacted K-pop fandom in Latin America, which is characterized by cultural hybridity and bottom-up globalization. In the third article, "Reckoning with the World: Infrastructural Imaginaries of Cuba in Contemporary Korean Television," Benjamin Han examines how popular television...

Transnational Proximity and Universality in Korean Culture: Analysis of Squid Game and BTS

By utilizing transnational proximity as a primary theoretical framework, I analyze the reasons why global audiences beyond Asia prefer contemporary Korean popular culture to other cultural products. I investigate several distinctive cultural programs and Korean screen spheres—BTS and Squid Game (2021) in particular—as well as fan communities. I mainly discuss whether "transnational proximity" based on similar socio-cultural experiences, including social inequality and social injustice, which are rampant in late capitalist society, works as a new theoretical frame in comprehending the global success of Hallyu. Finally, I discuss whether transnational proximity plays a pivotal role in determining the growth of local popular culture in the global cultural sphere.

Sociocultural dimensions of early dual language learning

Titone and Tiv's Systems Theory of Bilingualism aims to “urge cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to better embrace sociolinguistic and sociocultural experiences as part of their theoretical and empirical purview”. No stronger case for such a framework can be found than in studies of developmental aspects of bilingualism. In fact, inclusion of sociocultural variation has been a common feature of many studies of dual language learning for some time, especially in studies of pre-school and early-school-age learners (see Genesee, 2019, for a review). Young dual language learners – neonates, infants and toddlers, exposed to more than one language – begin life as virtual tabula rasa and are capable of learning any language with facility. As a result, their language acquisition is necessarily tied to the sociocultural parameters of the learning environments they are exposed to. Moreover, as Titone and Tiv emphasize, the immediate and ultimate purpose of language learning is communication. Thus, young dual language learners must be attuned to and acquire the sociocultural constraints and norms for communicating effectively in more than one language. While sociocultural variation is important for understanding language acquisition even among monolingual children living in relatively homogeneous monocultural environments, sociocultural variation is inherent and, indeed, enhanced in the learning environments of children acquiring more than one language insofar as each language is intimately linked with different socio-cultural parameters. Sociocultural variation can be important for understanding bilingualism in yet another way. In studies of the neuro-cognitive consequences of bilingualism, it has been reported that there is a more pronounced association between dual language exposure and activation of certain brain areas among adolescent bilinguals from relatively low SES backgrounds than bilinguals from relatively high SES backgrounds (Brito & Noble, 2018). Inclusion of sociocultural variation in research on the effects of bilingualism can reveal a more nuanced view than emerges if such variation is not considered.

The Intergenerational Conflict in Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls: Second Generation Experiences

This study explores the intergeneration conflict and acculturation strategies of the second-generation Chinese American in Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls. The novel depicts Pearl and May’s experiences moving to America due to the Sino-Japanese war in China and facing the cultural conflict of choosing the Chinese or American culture. Therefore, the study uses the sociological approach by employing Hofstede’s cultural dimension and Sam and Berry’s acculturation model to examine the sociocultural experiences of Pearl and May. The result is that the conflict between the first and second generations is based on power distance, masculinity and femininity; individualism and collectivism; and the short and long term. As the result of the conflict, Pearl integrates two cultures on the dimension of power distance and short and long term, while May assimilates more into American culture. Those different strategies also imply the different reception experienced by Pearl and May while socializing within both the Chinese and American cultures.

Naturalistic Parent Teaching in the Home Environment During Early Childhood.

Children’s sociocultural experiences in their day-to-day lives markedly play a key role in learning about the world. This study investigated parent–child teaching during early childhood as it naturally occurs in the home setting. Thirty-nine families’ naturalistic interactions in the home setting were observed; 1033 teaching sequences were identified based on detailed transcriptions of verbal and non-verbal behavior. Within these sequences, three domains of learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) and subtopics were identified and analyzed in relation to gender, child birth order, context, teaching strategies, and learner response. Findings show knowledge, skills, and dispositions were taught equally, marked by the most prominent subtopics taught within each domain, including cognitive (skill), game rule (knowledge), and social rule (disposition). Further, mothers and fathers were found to teach their children equally, however, fathers taught knowledge more than mothers, whereas mothers taught dispositions more than fathers. Differences between domains of learning and subtopics also existed between mother’s and father’s teaching based on child birth order and gender. This study also assessed the contrast between teaching knowledge, skills, and dispositions by context, parent teaching strategies, and child learner response. Results support the notion that family interactions in the home setting set a stage for children’s rich informal learning experiences. Vygotskian sociocultural conceptions underpin this research and findings are discussed using this central theoretical lens.

Socioeconomic, Clinical, and Molecular Features of Breast Cancer Influence Overall Survival of Latin American Women.

Molecular profile of breast cancer in Latin-American women was studied in five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. Data about socioeconomic characteristics, risk factors, prognostic factors, and molecular subtypes were described, and the 60-month overall cumulative survival probabilities (OS) were estimated. From 2011 to 2013, 1,300 eligible Latin-American women 18 years or older, with a diagnosis of breast cancer in clinical stage II or III, and performance status ≦̸1 were invited to participate in a prospective cohort study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, and clinical and outcome data, including death, were extracted from medical records. Unadjusted associations were evaluated by Chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests and the OS by Kaplan–Meier method. Log-rank test was used to determine differences between cumulative probability curves. Multivariable adjustment was carried out by entering potential confounders in the Cox regression model. The OS at 60 months was 83.9%. Multivariable-adjusted death hazard differences were found for women living in Argentina (2.27), Chile (1.95), and Uruguay (2.42) compared with Mexican women, for older (≥60 years) (1.84) compared with younger (≤40 years) women, for basal-like subtype (5.8), luminal B (2.43), and HER2-enriched (2.52) compared with luminal A subtype, and for tumor clinical stages IIB (1.91), IIIA (3.54), and IIIB (3.94) compared with stage IIA women. OS was associated with country of residence, PAM50 intrinsic subtype, age, and tumor stage at diagnosis. While the latter is known to be influenced by access to care, including cancer screening, timely diagnosis and treatment, including access to more effective treatment protocols, it may also influence epigenetic changes that, potentially, impact molecular subtypes. Data derived from heretofore understudied populations with unique geographic ancestry and sociocultural experiences are critical to furthering our understanding of this complexity.

The Socio-Cultural Integration: The Case of Kuti Resettlement Site in Kaffa Zone, South-West Ethiopia

This study investigates the socio-cultural integration of resettler and host communities in Kuti resettlement site in Gimbo woreda one of the resettlement sites selected for the 1985/86 resettlement program. The study was conducted with 20 participants selected from the resettled and host communities. The premise for the selection of the mentioned study site is the absence of prior research in the site and to add some additional knowledge on few researches done in socio-cultural integration aspect of resettlers in general. The research follows the procedures of an exploratory case study design in examining the experiences of socio-cultural integration between the host and resettler communities. Unstructured interview guide and two FGD sessions were used as the data collection instruments. Content analysis technique was applied in this study. This technique used to analyze their socio-cultural experiences and the perceptions towards each other. Three key findings are emerged from this study. The first is that both the resettler and host communities generally have positive regard towards each other. The second finding showed that different strategies of socio-cultural integration are used by the communities such as: intermarriage, sharecropping and adoption of cultural practices. The third major finding showed that the two greatest challenges to integration are lack of equal political participation and stereotyping by both communities. In conclusion, the study findings showed that there are aspects of socio-cultural integration which were manifested socially and culturally. The social manifestations included: intermarriage, God parenting, friendship, sharecropping, borrowing and lending. The cultural manifestation pertained to the adoption of different cultural practices by both communities. The challenges of integration were also perceived by the participants as resolvable in the long run and not severe to threaten future prospects for further integration.

Worlds apart

This paper explores the experiences of sociocultural adjustment of four multilingual international students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) at a Canadian university. International students have been associated with negative images of failure and disruption to higher education on the basis of the hierarchy of cultures that privileges local and western knowledge. Multilingual EAL international students in particular have been broadly characterised as deficient speakers of English considering their non-native proficiency. From this point of view, multilingual international students tend to experience a kind of double deficit as they are compared to both local and native-speaker students. By employing interviews and photographs, this paper seeks to understand and represent the experiences of sociocultural adjustment of the four students and provides an emic, balanced account of each student’s journey which also takes into account the ways in which the students exercised agency. Findings demonstrate the complexity of the international student experience and the importance of meaningful social interaction for multilingual international students to feel included in their communities. Photographs depict experiences from the students’ perspectives which the students considered representative of positive sociocultural adjustment, but also of challenges in the same domain. This paper concludes with insights related to improving the sociocultural adjustment experiences of multilingual international students.

A Question of Design: Strategies for Embedding AI-Driven Tools into Journalistic Work Routines

With the promise of AI, the use of emerging technologies in journalism has gained momentum. However, the question of how such technologies can be interwoven with newsroom practices, values, routines, and socio-cultural experiences is often neglected. This article investigates the ways in which AI-driven tools are permeating newswork and design strategies for blending technological capabilities with editorial requirements. We followed a multi-method approach to investigate the deployment of AI in news production at two London newsrooms: (1) a design ethnography at the BBC with journalists and technologists, and (2) interviews with journalists at The Times. Our findings show that while journalists are generally open to try AI-driven technologies that benefit their work, technologists struggle to integrate them into journalistic workflows. The consensus was that human judgement is required to make complex decisions in journalism and that journalistic values should be prioritised in AI tool design. We claim that AI tools need to fit with professional practices and values in journalism in order to be fully accepted as an editorial tool. Embedding new technologies into journalistic workflows requires therefore a close collaboration between journalists and technologists, and a sociotechnical design that blends in work routines and values.

Rethinking multilingual experience through a Systems Framework of Bilingualism

AbstractIn “The Devil's Dictionary”, Bierce (1911) defined language as “The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.” This satirical definition reflects a core truth – humans communicate using language to accomplish social goals. In this Keynote, we urge cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to more fully embrace sociolinguistic and sociocultural experiences as part of their theoretical and empirical purview. To this end, we review theoretical antecedents of such approaches, and offer a new framework – theSystems Framework of Bilingualism– that we hope will be useful in this regard. We conclude with new questions to nudge our discipline towards a more nuanced, inclusive, and socially-informed scientific understanding of multilingual experience. We hope to engage a wide array of researchers united under the broad umbrella of multilingualism (e.g., researchers in neurocognition, sociolinguistics, and applied scientists).

Transitional self-disappear: the journey of cancer survivors to self re-coherence in a Middle East society.

PurposePeople who experience cancer often face serious and unpleasant challenges in understanding their past, present, and future. They think they have lost their lifetime, agency, and interpersonal relationships, and no longer know their bodies. These experiences can change survivors’ perceptions of themselves. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop a deep theoretical understanding of the change of self in cancer survivors.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were conducted with 17 cancer survivors, 2 oncologists, and 2 family members of survivors. In this study, grounded theory methodology was used to explore the process of understanding and experiencing “self” in cancer survivors.ResultsThe present study generated a model about the change of self, with the main concept called “transitional self-disappear,” which is understandable based on the concepts of self-disruption (temporal disruption, highlighted body, interference in the agency, individual-self disruption, over-differentiation, relational self-disruption, and painful emotional experiences), self-reconstruction strategy, and quality of self-coherence, and occurs in the context of the cancer-based socio-cultural experiences and individual-environmental preparedness.ConclusionThis model illuminated the complex paths and roads of the survivors’ journey from self-disappear to self reconstruction/re-coherence. A healthier experience of this journey can be facilitated by the transcendence of the “self” conceptualized in the past, and the promotion of specific (cancer-based socio-cultural experiences) and general (individual-environmental preparedness) conditions.

Perceived causes and diagnosis of febrile convulsion in selected rural contexts in Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana

BackgroundFebrile convulsion (FC) is a common seizure disorder among children aged 9 months to 5 years. It is usually benign and self-limiting with favourable prognosis. However, in Ghana, FC is commonly perceived as “not for hospital” and widely diagnosed and managed at home based on several beliefs and practices which are limited in related literature.ObjectiveThis study explored the perceived causes and diagnosis of FC in selected rural communities in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana.MethodsA descriptive phenomenological study design underpinned the study at five selected communities located not more than 2 Kilometres from the University of Cape Coast Hospital. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to interview 42 participants made up of 27 parents, two grandmothers, seven registered traditional health practitioners, four herbalists, and two faith healers in the communities. The data was analysed using QSR NVivo 12.ResultsThree perceived causes of FC were identified – biological, social/behavioural, and spiritual. Biological causes include genetic abnormalities and other underlying health conditions. The behavioural factors include poor childcare practices and nutrition. Spiritual causes include harm caused by evil spirits. The diagnosis of FC were observed prior, during and after FC attack, and these includes high body temperature, extreme body jerking, and disability outcomes respectively.ConclusionThe perceived causes of FC are interplay of complex natural, social and spiritual factors that were deep-rooted in local socio-cultural beliefs and FC experiences. Unlike the attack stage, pre-attack diagnosis were usually missed, or misconstrued to mean other health conditions. These findings indicate the need to intensify maternal and child health (MCH) education programmes on FC in the study area through improved primary healthcare.

Deprivation of Children in the Indian Modern Society

The traditional Indian society is hierarchically organised. Each stratum of this hierarchy is defined by the caste of people that constitute it. The caste system is fraught with economic implications and cultural diversities. It is evident from some sociological and anthropological studies (Mandelbaum, 1990; Dube, 1994) that in India there are wide gaps and variations along sociocultural experiences in different social segments. High order of disparities is apparent in economic, social, physical and affiliation conditions. Individuals of various social segments of the population grow with varied experiences due to their varied environments. In facts, Indian socio-economic setup provides a psychedelic array of hues with vast differences in experiential backgrounds. A large segment of rural and urban people in India still lives at the barest subsistence level, suffering from under and mal nutrition, socio-cultural inequality and other serious handicaps such as lack of elementary medical, sanitary and educational facilities.