Report 2011 - Deepalaya

(74% 115 ). Knowing that most people in the villages work in the field, that they take their food from there, that
an important part doesn't wear footwear and that sanitation is inadequate in this rural area, there is high risk
of contamination and transmission of hookworms. In this way we have also noticed that 60 % of interviewed
women told us that they have or had any symptoms of intestinal/parasital infection including fever, abdominal
pain, diarrhea or worms in their swoons.
Education
Almost every women from villages had never gone to school and are illiterate, unable to read and write. Thus,
the average of last grade completed is grade 0.2 for those women. At the state level, currently married nonliterate
women represents 38,8 % of total population (vs 43,4% in rural areas) 116 . Currently married women with
10 or more years of schooling represent 25.9 % total in Haryana vs 19.9 rural 117 . A part of this difference
between state level and our results is again due to validity of our survey.
As explained previously, low educational level is associated with high fertility rate in the country, and contribute
to poor knowledge on health. This results in hygiene and food habits that contribute to increase risks of
infection, malnutrition and high fertility rate.
We’ve also been told by clinic staff that most of the time, in the villages surrounding Gusbethi, people who are
illiterate or who are having a low educational level have to ask permission to their parents to use any family
planning methods. Considering that, a lot of elder persons are also illiterate and had never use any
contraception methods, the number of children in those families is not going to decrease as long as young
women and men are illiterate… To increase the time between births and then, help the body to store enough
iron for the next pregnancy, a good knowledge about the main contributing factors of anemia is essential.
The language is a real barrier because they speak Mewati language only and don't understand Hindi which limit
communication with the clinic staff and outsiders.
Knowledge about anemia
None of the women interviewed had ever attended any awareness about anemia from Deepalaya's mobile
clinic, but some of them heard about “Khoon ki kami” meaning “lack of blood” in Hindi, by family members,
friends or by their doctor after doing Hb blood test during ANC, meaning that they are affected by this illness
when they know what it is. Therefore, education on this topic is essential in this area, knowing that the
prevalence of anemia is very high amongst pregnant women as shown by our data analysis of the mobile clinic
and in overall India. Moreover, with 2/3 of women having any symptoms of anemia and 47% having physical
signs, as listed in our Questionnaire, awareness on this illness to help them prevent, recognize and know the
importance of treating anemia.
Retrospective analysis of Mobile Clinic data
As an other part of our research, we investigated the most recent data of the Mobile Clinic when it was still
going in the villages to find information on pregnant women. Thus we randomly chose 45 women coming from
the twelve villages available in the clinic data. We found in these prescription pads their age, their obstetrical
score, their weight, their blood pressure, their Hb value (Hemoglobin level), their symptoms and the medication
115 R e f e r e n c e 1 3 - p . 9 , t a b l e 3
116 Reference 7 -p.3
117 R e f e r e n c e 7 p .3