Estimation of health status of tribal farm women of Sabarkantha district

Abstract

Women play multiple roles in a family as housekeepers and also equally important roles as wage earners and agricultural producers. However, very often they are subjected to malnutrition and form a group highly vulnerable to morbidity and mortality. A women's health will be less productive in the labour force. Sabarkantha is considered as one of the country's 250 most backward districts. The present study was conducted in Khedbrahma and Poshina talukas of Sabarkantha district. Five villages from these two selected tribal talukas were selected randomly for the study. Total ten villages were selected for the study. Ten tribal farm women from each randomly selected village were selected. Thus, hundred tribal farm women were selected for present study. A pre-tested interview schedule was administered to elicit the information regarding their socio-economic attributes and health status. The data were collected by personal interview. More than half of the respondents were illiterate and were having low income. Clinical signs and symptoms were also observed. While studying the morbidity profile of the tribal farm women it was observed that anemia was found to be most prevalent (16%) followed by gum & teeth problems (12%) and digestive tract disorders (10%). Majority (59%) respondents were recorded of having no history of illness which might be due to ill informed status about the disease and lack of diagnosis.