12 March, 2014

Mothers in rural India with better peer network save kids from malnutrition

Washington: A new study from University of Illinois study found that mothers in rural India who participated in a program designed to educate and empower women, gained a network of peers that led to increased bargaining strength in the home, and significantly improved their children's consumption of rice and dairy.

"Prior to participating in Mahila Samakhya, which loosely translates to women of equal value, most of the participants reported regularly communicating with fewer than five women outside their families," U of I economist Kathy Baylis said.

"Some of the women initially said things like, 'I never knew anybody like me could work outside of the home' and 'I never knew anyone like me could stand up to her husband.' But after participating in the program, even if they didn't go out and use that vocational training in jobs, they felt that they had a little more right to say, 'No, I think this is how we should be spending our money in our household.' Women were exerting more of a say over household resources," she said.

In India, over 40 percent of children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition . This is despite the fact that per capita income has more than doubled since the mid-1990s and agricultural production is at an all-time high, with large buffer stocks of cereals in government granaries.

"There's evidence that if women have more bargaining power in the household, particularly in developing countries where cash is very tight, quite often more resources go toward the kids," Baylis said.

"So, to test that hypothesis, we went into homes with bowls and asked how many bowls this size of rice did your kids eat yesterday? Not only do we see evidence that more is going to kids, but more food is going to girls in particular, which is good because they tend to be the least powerful persons in the household. When times are tight, the girls' food is usually what's cut back," she said.

In the study, 487 women were surveyed from six of thirteen districts in Uttarakhand, four with the program and two without.

Baylis said that the study shows that women who are more empowered, educated, and mobile can actually change the village culture. 

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com/news/health

12.03.2014

Cell phone addiction may kill parent-child bond

New York: Do you often play games, check emails or respond to office calls on your cell phone while with family on a dinner? This phone addiction can damage your emotional bonding with kids soon.

In a first-of-its-kind study to examine how children behave with adults on phones, researchers from Boston Medical Centre studied 55 parents while they had food at a restaurant with children.

They found that one in three parents used their phones almost continuously during the meals.

“A lack of eye contact and interaction with children can reduce the bond with them,” alerted Jenny Radesky, a behavioural pediatrics expert.

Almost 73 percent of the adults used their phone at least once during each meal.

More than 15 percent used their phones towards the end of the meal and continued to use it until they left the restaurant, said the study.

When parents spent a long time looking at their phones, their children had a tendency to seek attention.

“Parents who were highly absorbed in their devices seemed to have more negative or less engaged interactions with children,” Radesky was quoted as saying.

Children became distracted and wanted to know why the parents were using their phones during the family time.

This could cause problems with the child's development and reduce the level of bond between a parent and a child, said the findings, to be published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com/news/health

12.03.2014

Just because you fail once, doesn’t mean you’re going to fail at everything