Sunday, 18 September 2016

teenage preganancy

TEENAGE PREGNANCY

Our society claims to be modern and aping the western culture. But, are we able to change our thought process accordingly or are we still facing doubts on whether to accept certain issues or not. Teenage pregnancy is one such issue. Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy attained between puberty and the age of 19. 

The other day, CHILDLINE Trivandrum received an emergency call from a PRO of Trivandrum’s most prominent government hospital. It was a case of teenage pregnancy. Karthika (Given Name) is a student of class IX in one of city’s leading school for girls. Over the past few days, the teachers noticed certain abnormalities and unusual behaviour patterns in the girl. Upon questioning, she revealed that, her relationship with her neighbour had gone physical, and now she was carrying. Her parents were called upon and the matter was informed. Though devastated, they made up their mind on what next to be done. At the medical facility, the child’s parents had brought her for an abortion. But things were already out of hand, as she was seven months pregnant.

CHILIDLINE team intervened in the case and talked with both parents and the child. The girl confessed that the relationship was mutual. But what made us wonder, was details given about the abuser. The man was 28 years old, a seasoned criminal. He has been booked under various cases including ganja peddling and sexual abuse/assault. Recently, a girl with whom the alleged suspect had a relation committed suicide fearing social backlash. We provided counselling for the child and sent her back with her parents, assuring full support.

THE SHOCK FACTOR    
One of the worst fears a parent can have is, when they get to know that their daughter is pregnant. What is even more astonishing is when your daughter comes home and confesses to you that she’s “in trouble”.
The girl may still be in high school, maybe she is younger. And maybe she is still in college or just set out on her own with a carefully thought out plan. Maybe the parents knew about the boyfriend, or maybe they didn’t even know she had one. At times they are completely surprised by the fact that she’s even had a relationship! It really doesn’t matter how this happened, the fact is that it did and now, the daughter needs help.

REASONS
The culturally rooted practice of early marriage due to socio-cultural and economic pressure and pre-marital sex are the causative factors of early pregnancies. While incidence of teenage pregnancy is high among those in rural areas, it is not so with the urban teenagers. Some of the reasons for teenage pregnancy are:-
1. Child marriage is a social evil which needs to be curbed in order to curb teenage pregnancy and the ruining of the lives of millions of adolescent girls.
2. Exposure to domestic violence especially of a sexual nature and minors’ being raped often leads to pregnancy.
3. High risk behaviour such as smoking, alcohol and substance abuse can be one of the main reasons.
4. Stress and depression often leads to a situation in which a child might fall into the pit of unprotected sex and can be pregnant.
5. Financial constraints in poor families often lead to adolescents taking steps which are bound to affect their lives in a negative manner.
6. Family problems often cause children to seek love and support elsewhere and often is a cause of early relationships
6. Above all, the most common reason for teen pregnancy is unprotected sex.

THE SOCIAL BACKLASH
A teenager who gets pregnant finds it difficult to be accepted socially. They experience isolation, guilt accompanied by stress and depression, low self esteem, lack of interest in studies, limited job prospects, and lack of support group or friends, mental and emotional trauma. In such a situation even the parents and friends find it hard to help the female. Friends often want to help, but due to the social stigma, do not come forward. Often the teenager is left in isolation and the post effects of this can be prolonged and depressing.

PREVENTION AND CARE
Explaining the health risks associated with teenage pregnancy, a senior gynaecologist at Govt. Rajaji Hospital, Tamil Nadu said, “Pregnant teenagers are likely to develop complaints of anaemia, mal-presentation and blood pressure. In cases of unplanned pregnancy, the patient will undergo mental and physical trauma”. It also leads to psychological disorder and affects the baby to be born. There are various methods by which teenage pregnancy can be prevented. A few of them are:
1 Parents and schools should have open talks with teenagers regarding sex and related issues. Sex education forms an important part of the above process.
2. Providing advice on how to prevent teenage pregnancy.
3. Proper contraceptive counselling should be done and the teenagers should have full information about contraceptive options such as birth control pills, condoms, etc.
4. Display responsible sexual behaviour and abstain from sex as far as possible.
Finally, the teenage girls should take it upon themselves to make their choice of contraception because it is they who suffer from the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.

END NOTE

The key to reproductive health is making motherhood safer through access to family planning to reduce unintended pregnancies and to space intended pregnancies and provide skilled care for all pregnancies and births. It’s easy to say but hard to be in a situation and cope with it. The question that still remains is that “Will teenage pregnancy ever be socially acceptable?” As in, will people ever come forward to help a child in such a situation or will they disregard her to live a life of hell without any help.


Friday, 2 September 2016

PAR

Participatory Action Research

Participatory research methods are geared towards planning and conducting the research process with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study. Consequently, this means that the aim of the inquiry and the research questions develop out of the convergence of two perspectives—that of science and practice. In the best case, both sides benefit from the research process.

Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research in communities that emphasizes participation as a right and action. It seeks to understand the world by trying to change it, collaboratively and following reflection. PAR emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history. We are applying the same to the situation of vulnerable children to grow them into responsible citizens.

An All-Inclusive Curriculum
The Trivandrum Don Bosco Nivas is perhaps Trivandrum’s first care home to have a curriculum framework for educators working in early education and care settings with children from age five to 18. It identifies shared values and beliefs and contributes to consistency of practice across different learning settings. The Society promotes professional dialogue within and between settings and highlights the crucial role early childhood educators play in establishing strong foundations for children’s current wellbeing, future learning and life success.
The thought of developing a curriculum for all the children in various disciplines (both academic and non academic) at Don Bosco Nivas was raised by the most unexpected voices: the children themselves. The curriculum is an amalgamation of diverse facets such as academic subjects, arts and crafts, farming techniques etc. We could make these thoughts into a reality, only through the result of painstaking research and evaluation technique called the Participatory Action Research.

The Process
This process will take time. It is not a one-off experience, but an ongoing professional process of reflection and renewal.

The main aim of PAR and its process is to enable the children, along with care administrators and researchers, with the process of developing capacity and skills to analyze their situation and initiate appropriate measures to transform their situation and sustain further. In order to achieve this we have created a team called focus group formed by children, care administrators, management and the researcher.

The researcher arranges one on one meeting, group meeting, observation etc with the focus group on the identified issues. With their support and suggestions we have implemented some of the changes in the center. Personal meeting and group discussion with the team helped to identify their issues particularly and generally. Also the meeting with the management has made a common platform for the focus group to feel free and express their issues.    

As a research module, PAR is already being carried out in 10 YaR centres of South India with a view to making them more child-directed. 

Fundamental Principles of Participatory Research
As the community that involved in the research are at a weaker position, it is very important to involve in the process with an unbiased and democratic outlook. Every research has a set of rules or principles that it follows. When it comes to PAR, there are a few as well:-

·         Democracy as a precondition for participatory research
Unbiased and democratic outlook, where everyone are considered equal; both children and the researchers
·         The need for a "safe space"
The perfect environment alone can create an incredible opportunity for the children to open up in front of the researchers
·         Proper definition of  "the community" participating
The children should have the basic cognitive ability to understand the questions and involve in the process.
·         Different degrees of participation
Participation can be of various kinds; at times it can be questioning, and other times it may be just a casual point made on the subject

Features of PAR

The key elements and feature of the PAR process can be as follows:-
• It focuses on bringing change, actively engaging all people within a community to work towards this change.
• It is unique to a particular context as it revolves around unique needs within a particular group of people.
• It emphasises teamwork and active collaboration, where researchers and participants work together to analyse a problem situation and generate actions to solve the problem.
• It is an interactive process involving actions and constant reflection during the process.
• It creates awareness among participants about their current situation and the need to take action to create change.

The Change Maker

The participative method works on a premise that issues are best solved when there is an open and genuine dialogue and negotiation between all individuals related to the issue.  In contrast to the normal mode wherein the adults (or formators) offer answers to the children (or formees), the participative mode empowers the child/formee to find his or her own solution.  It provides space, time and a level ground for everyone, especially the child/formee, to participate in decision-making in matters related to its own well-being. This rests on the conviction that everyone, even a child, is capable of decision-making and that needs to be respected. The end result of PAR is a change in the attitudes of those in leadership roles.