scholarly journals Early and Forced Child Marriages in Rural Western Nepal

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Pitambar Acharya ◽  
Benjamin Welsh

After reviewing the state of early and forced child marriage (ECM) globally and nationally within Nepal, this research assessed the determinants, consequences and preventive measures of ECM in rural municipalities in Nepal today. This mixed method surveyed 167 households taking 15 % sample from the clusters of three wards of Badhaiyatal Rural Municipality in Bardiya and Dullu Municipality in Dailekh of Western Nepal. Besides household survey, six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), 16 Key Informant's Interviews (KIIs), and 12 In-depth-Interviews (IDIs) were also conducted. There was the prevalence of ECM in 94% of the total sampled households. Majority (64%) of the marriages had taken place at the age of 15-19 years. Besides, about 23% of the marriage had occurred at 10-14 years. Average age at marriage was 16.5 years. Lack of awareness, self-elopement, misuse of social media, and parents’ perception of daughters as burden were some contributing factors of ECM. Unsafe sexual behavior, unwanted pregnancy and its risk to unsafe abortion, maternal and child mortality, deprivation of education and self- dependence and violence were some effects of ECM. Recommendations to address ECM and curb its negative effects are presented.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Serede Sikolia ◽  
Hellen K. Mberia

This article sought to address the gap in empirical research related to personal identity and social capital as gratification factors motivating teenage engagement on Social Network Sites (SNSs) in Kenya. We employed a mixed method research design in which Self-administered Questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions and In-depth Interviews were used in data collection. Participants were drawn from a sample of (n = 481) respondents from two sub-counties of Nairobi County. We focused on five popular SNSs namely, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. Findings revealed that personal identity and social capital significantly influenced teenagers’ engagement on SNSs. Specifically, high school teenagers’ engagement on SNSs was motivated by the need to bridge and maintain social capital more than bonding. We conclude that social network sites engagements among teenagers need to be harnessed for positive outcomes. Equally, we recommend positive use of SNSs in behavior change campaigns targeting teenagers.Keywords: Social Network Sites, Personal identity, Social capital, Uses and Gratifications, Teenagers


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-95
Author(s):  
Nsemba Edward Lenshie ◽  
Patience Kondu Jacob

The relationship between Fulani herdsmen and farmers has in recent years become hot-tempered motivated by competitive control of land resources, particularly in central and north-east Nigeria. In Taraba State, the ongoing nomadic migration pattern from the Sahel in quest of pastures has led to violent confrontation between Fulani herdsmen and farming indigenous natives. Using a descriptive approach consisting of documented evidence, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions, the analysis revealed that conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous native farmers have culminated in population displacement and destruction of life and property in numerous rural enclaves in Taraba State. Despite the consequences of the conflicts, the Taraba State government was unable to act proactively because of the centralization of command over Nigerian security agencies. Accordingly, the study suggests decentralization of security agencies in Nigeria, especially the police, as the way forward for effective security governance in Nigeria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e000822
Author(s):  
Robert C Hughes ◽  
Patricia Kitsao-Wekulo ◽  
Sunil Bhopal ◽  
Elizabeth W Kimani-Murage ◽  
Zelee Hill ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe early years are critical. Early nurturing care can lay the foundation for human capital accumulation with lifelong benefits. Conversely, early adversity undermines brain development, learning and future earning.Slums are among the most challenging places to spend those early years and are difficult places to care for a child. Shifting family and work structures mean that paid, largely informal, childcare seems to be becoming the ‘new normal’ for many preschool children growing up in rapidly urbanising Africa. However, little is known about the quality of this childcare.AimsTo build a rigorous understanding what childcare strategies are used and why in a typical Nairobi slum, with a particular focus on provision and quality of paid childcare. Through this, to inform evaluation of quality and design and implementation of interventions with the potential to reach some of the most vulnerable children at the most critical time in the life course.Methods and analysisMixed methods will be employed. Qualitative research (in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) with parents/carers will explore need for and decision-making about childcare. A household survey (of 480 households) will estimate the use of different childcare strategies by parents/carers and associated parent/carer characteristics. Subsequently, childcare providers will be mapped and surveyed to document and assess quality of current paid childcare. Semistructured observations will augment self-reported quality with observable characteristics/practices. Finally, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with childcare providers will explore their behaviours and motivations. Qualitative data will be analysed through thematic analysis and triangulation across methods. Quantitative and spatial data will be analysed through epidemiological methods (random effects regression modelling and spatial statistics).Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been granted in the UK and Kenya. Findings will be disseminated through journal publications, community and government stakeholder workshops, policy briefs and social media content.


2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-338
Author(s):  
Justice Richard Kwabena Owusu Kyei ◽  
Lidewyde H. Berckmoes

Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds on individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with political vigilante group members in Kumasi and Tamale in 2019. Findings show that political vigilante “youth” appeared to refer primarily to the social position attributed to non-elite groups in the political field. Political vigilante groups are multi-faceted in their organisational structures, membership, and activities both during electoral campaigns and during governing periods. While some groups revert to violence occasionally, the study concludes that political vigilante groups, in enabling different voices to be heard, are also contributing to democratic governance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 983-998
Author(s):  
L’Emira Lama El Ayoubi ◽  
Sawsan Abdulrahim ◽  
Maia Sieverding

Providing adolescent girls with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information protects them from risks and improves their well-being. This qualitative study, conducted in Lebanon, examined Syrian refugee adolescent girls’ access to SRH information about and experiences with puberty and menarche, sex, marriage, contraception, and pregnancy. We gathered data through three focus group discussions (FGDs) with unmarried adolescent girls, 11 in-depth interviews with early-married adolescents, and two FGDs with mothers. Our findings highlighted that adolescent participants received inadequate SRH information shortly before or at the time of menarche and sexual initiation, resulting in experiences characterized by anxiety and fear. They also revealed discordance between girls’ views of mothers as a preferred source of information and mothers’ reluctance to communicate with their daughters about SRH. We advance that mothers are important entry points for future interventions in this refugee population and offer recommendations aimed to improve adolescent girls’ SRH and rights.


Human Affairs ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olayinka Akanle ◽  
Olanrewau Olutayo

AbstractUnderstanding the selves, situations and actions of Africans can never be comprehended outside kinship. Local and foreign worldviews are first pigeonholed into culture and defined within kinship realities in Nigeria and Africa. There have been studies on kinship in Africa. However, the findings from such studies portrayed the immutability of African kinship. Thus, as an important contribution to the on-going engagement of kinship in the twenty-first century as an interface between the contemporary Diaspora, this article engaged kinship within international migration. This is a major behavioural and socio-economic force in Nigeria. Methodological triangulation was adopted as part of the research design and primary data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs), and life histories of international migrants were documented and focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with kin of returnees. The article found and concluded that while returnees continued to appreciate local kinship infrastructures, the infrastructures were liable to reconstruction primarily determined by dominant support situations in the traditional African kinship networks.


Author(s):  
Joyce Ayikoru Asiimwe

This paper communicates the results of a diagnostic evaluation of the performance of boys and girls in physical sciences at Ordinary level in Uganda after the adoption of the compulsory science policy. The objectives of the study were twofold: to examine the academic performance of boys and girls in the Uganda National Examinations from 2007 to 2010, and to highlight key factors that continue to influence the achievement of students, especially girls in sciences. Data was obtained from five co-educational secondary schools using documentary reviews, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed that the performance of both boys and girls have further declined after the implementation of the compulsory science policy. However, in comparison to the boys, girls in co-educational schools were still more likely to be among the poorest performers in sciences. This was attributed to a number of factors, key among them being girls' self-concept in sciences, and teachers' perception of girls' abilities in sciences. These findings reiterate the need to mainstream gender into both policy design and implementation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Justin Raycraft

This paper addresses how Makonde Muslim villagers living on the Swahili coast of southern Tanzania conceptualize and discuss environmental change. Through narratives elicited during in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, I show that respondents associate various forms of environmental change—ecological, climatic, political, and socioeconomic—with God’s plan. Respondents had a sound grasp of the material workings of their lived realities and evoked religious causality to fill in the residual explanatory gaps and find meaning in events that were otherwise difficult to explain. Such narratives reveal both a culturally engrained belief system that colors people’s understandings of change and uncertainty and a discursive idiom for making sense of social suffering. On an applied note, I submit that social science approaches to studying environmental change must take into account political and economic contexts relative to local cosmologies, worldviews, and religious faiths, which may not disaggregate the environment into distinct representational categories.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. S25-S43
Author(s):  
Unnikrishnan K Nair ◽  
Keyoor Purani

Kalpak Healthcare Limited (KHL), a large pharmaceutical company in the southern part of India, once faced severe sales force turnover in its Life Branded Medications SBU, popularly called the Branded SBU (B-SBU). It became an issue of highest concern to the top management of KHL; so they appointed a team of consultants from a premier management school in the region to study the issue and recommend possible solutions and strategies. Over a period of 6 months, the consultants conducted extensive research—studying internal company records, analysing the industry and external environment, gathering qualitative data through in-depth interviews (DIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) among KHL employees and executing a division-wide quantitative survey labelled as Manpower Mood Meter (M3) among the field executives—and finally came up with recommendations. The case is organized as two independent, successive ones—A and B. Case (A) describes the consultants’ engagement with KHL and ends with them pondering over the types of analyses to be done with the huge volume of data they had collected. Case (B) details the kinds of analyses they actually do and the inferences they draw. The set of recommendations the consultants finally make to the KHL top management is given in the epilogue of the teaching note. The critical value of this case lies in its ability to open up the students’ minds to the dynamic interplay of multiple factors—individual, managerial, organizational, industrial-contextual and historical—that holistically affect a phenomenon like ‘attrition’ in organizations. This could perhaps also be one of those rare cases that makes use of the principles of System Dynamics in a real, applied and combined context of marketing and human resource (HR) management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Susana Sabarni ◽  
Lidia Laksana Hidajat

Latar Belakang : Pesatnya perkembangan teknologi informasi, memudahkan remaja mengakses semua hal yang berhubungan dengan informasi seputar seks. Dengan kemudahan yang dimiliki untuk mengakses teknologi informasi ini, remaja seringkali terekspos oleh konten-konten pornografi. Secara langsung maupun tidak langsung akan memengaruhi sikap remaja terhadap perilaku seks pranikah.Tujuan : Mengetahui peran nilai pribadi, nilai budaya dan nilai religius dikaitkan dengan sikap remaja perempuan di Maumere dan Larantuka terhadap perilaku seks pranikah serta mengetahui sikap remaja perempuan terhadap perilaku seks pranikah.Metode : Penelitian menggunakan pendekatan mixed method, pengukuran sikap melalui pengisian kuesioner dan diskusi kelompok terarah (FGD) untuk mengetahui gambaran sikap remaja perempuan terhadap perilaku seks pranikah yang dikaitkan dengan nilai pribadi, nilai budaya dan nilai religius. Kegiatan penelitian dilakukan pada empat SMA di Maumere dan Larantuka. Jumlah partisipan 120 orang, diperoleh dengan teknik accidental sampling. Sebagai informasi tambahan dilakukan wawancara dengan tokoh budaya di Maumere dan tokoh agama di Larantuka. Hasil dan pembahasan : Berdasarkan pengolahan data terhadap pengukuran skala sikap diperoleh gambaran bahwa pada dasarnya remaja perempuan di Maumere dan Larantuka tidak menyetujui hubungan seks pranikah, meskipun telah terjadi pergeseran nilai. Sikap ini berdasarkan pada nilai-nilai pribadi yang diyakini remaja yaitu pertimbangan etika dan moral, dampak kehamilan, aborsi atau penyakit menular seksual. Dalam konteks budaya, pertimbangan remaja adalah sanksi sosial yang akan diperoleh dari kehamilan di luar nikah. Sedang dalam konteks religius, remaja mempertimbangkan tentang dosa. Berdasarkan diskusi kelompok terarah (FGD) disimpulkan bahwa nilai religius dirasakan sangat penting oleh partisipan karena dapat menumbuhkan iman dan memberi dorongan,arah dalam bertingkah laku. Nilai-nilai religius juga berperan dalam memberi motivasi dan membimbing seseorang untuk melakukan perbuatan yang baik. Dalam konteks budaya, para partisipan berpendapat bahwa budaya sangat penting karena dalam budaya diajarkan tentang perilaku yang pantas dan tidak pantas dilakukan. Oleh karena itu dibutuhkan pendampingan orangtua dalam mendidik dan menanamkan nilai-nilai moral dan etika.Kesimpulan : Pernyataan sikap tidak setuju terhadap perilaku seks pranikah merupakan internalisasi nilai-nilai budaya dan religius yang akhirnya membentuk sikap remaja di Maumere dan Larantuka Kata kunci : Peran nilai pribadi, nilai budaya dan nilai religius, sikap remaja perempuan, perilaku seks pranikah, Maumere dan Larantuka, Nusa Tenggara Timur Susana Sabarni, Lidia Laksana HidajatABSTRACT Background: The rapid development of information technology, making it easier for teenagers to access all things related to information about sex. With the ease they have to access this information technology, teenagers are often exposed to pornographic content. Directly or indirectly will influence teen attitudes towards premarital sex behavior.Objective: To acknowlegde the role of personal values, cultural values and religious values associated with the attitudes of adolescent girls in Maumere and Larantuka towards premarital sex behavior and also to acknowlegde  the attitudes of teenage girls to premarital sex behavior.Methods: The study used a mixed method approach, attitude measurement through filling out questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGD) to describe the attitudes of adolescent girls towards premarital sex behavior which is associated with personal values, cultural values and religious values. Research activities were carried out on four high schools in Maumere and Larantuka. The number of participants 120 people, obtained by accidental sampling technique. For additional information, interviews with cultural leaders in Maumere and religious leaders in Larantuka were conducted.Results and discussion: Based on data processing on attitude scale measurement obtained an illustration that basically girls in Maumere and Larantuka do not approve premarital sex, even though there has been a shift in values. This attitude is based on personal values believed by adolescents, namely ethical and moral considerations, the impact of pregnancy, abortion or sexually transmitted diseases. In the context of culture, adolescent considerations are social sanctions that will be obtained from pregnancy outside of marriage. While in a religious context, teenagers consider sin. Based on focus group discussions (FGD) it was concluded that religious values were felt to be very important by participants because they could foster faith and give encouragement, direction in behaving. Religious values also play a role in motivating and guiding someone to do good deeds. In the cultural context, the participants thought that culture was very important because in the culture it was taught about appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Therefore, parents are needed to assist in educating and instilling moral and ethical values.Conclusion: A statement of disagreement with premarital sex behavior is an internalization of cultural and religious values that ultimately shape their attitudes Keywords: The role of personal values, cultural values and religious values, attitudes of adolescent girls, premarital sexual behavior, Maumere and Larantuka, Nusa Tenggara Timur


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