An Assessment of Literacy Status of Teenage Mothers and their Husbands

 

Bhagwan Gamaji Ambhore1*, Hina Kausar2

1,2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine,

Dr. Ulhas Patil Medical College, Jalgaon Khurd (M.S.),

 

 

ABSTRACT:

Back ground: For many women and girls the classroom is the first and perhaps only setting in which they perform as individual rather than as member of particular family and the school serves not only as a source of new knowledge but as a source of new knowledge about themselves as well. Objective: To know the literacy status of women and their husbands and impact of literacy status on teen age pregnancy.

Materials and methods: Two hundred and nine teen age women delivered in the tertiary care hospital were taken as sample. Educational status of these sampled and their husband was enquired and interpretation were drawn Statistical analysis: Express in simple terma of proportion.

Observations and discussion:  Only 22.96 percent husband were illiterate in comparisons their 40.66 percent wives. None of these sampled women studied in college.

Conclusions and recommendations: Education is a driving force for better health. Teen-age pregnancy is a feature of lack of choice and self determinations in women's life. Education has a dramatic impact on this picture. Hence education of girls must be made an integral part of education policy.

 

KEYWORDS: Literacy status, Dramatics effect 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Education is the true essence of human development. Without education, development cannot be broad based nor sustained. Education exerts its influence indirectly by raising the social status and self-image of women by increasing their choice in life and also their ability to question the status, make decision for themselves and voice an opinion. Education has a dramatic effect on teen-age pregnancy and thus on an adolescent health.  Education of women is a tested solution for social ills. By keeping in mind the above facts and as per recommendations of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) study group in 1957, that in order to get a comprehensive picture of a disease, more and more such studies have to be carried out, Garg Narenra K.(2) and Garg Narenra K.and Sharma A.B.(3), the authors have under taken this study with the objective to assess the literacy status of teen age mothers and their husband and impact of their literacy on teen age pregnancy.

 

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

This study is a descriptive and cross sectional in nature conducted between 1st August 2001 and 31ST July 2002. Two hundred and nine teen-age mothers (10 to 19 years of age) delivered in Shri Chhatrapati Shivagi Maharaj General Hospital, Solapur (M.S.) were taken as sample. All teenage mothers delivered in the hospital. All the sampled women were interviewed and the information was collected in a predawn and pretested proforma. The mothers were interviewed in Marathi and Hindi. There were some Kannada speaking mothers for them, help of translator was obtained.

 

 

OBSERVATIONS AND DISCUSSION:

On analysis the data for literacy status of husband and wives, it was revealed that (Table-I) 85 (40.66%) mothers were illiterate. On further analysis table shows that there were only 02(0.99%) mothers were studied more than SSC while 31 (14.83%), 48(22.96%) and 43(20.57%) mothers were studied up to primary, middle and SSC respectively. None of these sampled women studied in college. This could be due to (i) The parents do not allow them to attend school after menarche and thus these girls became school drop outs. (ii) Most of the girls were married around 16 years of age, which corresponds to high school and thus they have been forced to dis continue their study.

 

TABLE-I-LITERACY STATUS OF TEEN AGE MOTHERS

Sr. Number

Literacy status

Number

Percentage

1.

Illiterate

85

40.66

2.

Primary

31

14.83

3.

Middle

48

22.96

4.

Up to SSC

43

20.57

5.

More than SSC

02

0.99

Total

 

209

100.00

 

P. Reddi Rani (3) in her sudy found that more than 70 percent teen age mothers were illiterate which was in contrast of the findings of, Kale KM et al (4) noted that over 82 percent were literate. (Table-II) shows that only 22.96 percent husband were illiterate in comparisons their 40.66 percent wives. Table further reveals that 11.96, 14.83 and 36.84 percent husbands were studied from primary, middle and high school level respectively while 07.17 and 06.24 percent husband's up to HSC and higher than HSC respectively.

 

TABLE-II-LITERACY STATUS OF TEEN AGE MOTHER'S HUSBANDS

Sr. Number

Literacy status

Number

Percentage

1.

Illiterate

48

22.96

2.

Primary School

25

11.96

3.

Middle School

31

14.83

4.

High School

77

36.84

5.

Up to HSC

15

07.17

6

>HSC and above

13

06.24

Total

 

209

100.00

 

It is estimated that 68 percent of women in developing world are illiterate, the rate of illiteracy being highest in Africa at 85 percent compared 67 percent for men and lowest in Latin America at 30 percent (5). Furthermore, though 65 percent of girls of appropriate age in developing countries were enrolled in primary school, the figure of secondary school enrollment was only 37 percent and for higher education at 10 percent(5). As general rule and for variety of reasons, rural people have higher levels of illiteracy than their counterparts’ urban people. 1981 Census for India showed that the rate of illiteracy among 214 million women lived in country side was 18 percent compared with 48 percent for 73 million women living in towns, Mukhopadhyaya M (6). The dropout rate too is far higher among country people than among city people in almost all areas. In Guatemala, studies showed that only 4 percent of rural children complete their primary school education as against their counterparts 50 percent of town children). Harrison P (7). Education is a driving force for better health. Girls scoring higher in academic motivational scale and those doing well in schools are less likely to be sexually active, Sally D. (8).

 

Philips KJ,(9) noted that an un educated women is less ready to seek professional health care than her educated sister, either because she is not fully aware of what it has to offer or because she is frightened and out of her depth in her align world of health services.

 

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Lack of adequate education limits women ability to find paid work and the power she had in the family. Illiterate women have inadequate knowledge about her own health i.e. pregnancy and are less likely to seek professional health care than their literate counterparts. Higher education of women is associated with late marriage, low fertility and better outcome thus teen-age marriage and poor educational status of girls often reinforce each other. Nevertheless, it can be commented that female literacy in true sense is the important factor and not merely the ability to read alphabets. Teen age pregnancy is a feature of lack of choice and self determinations in women's life. Education has a dramatic impact on this picture. Hence, education of girls must be made an integral part of education policy.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Garg Narendra K.: Evaluation of the impact of emesis and emesis plus purgation Therapy; Research J Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics:2 (2) March-April;2010:201-202.

2.       Garg Narendra K and Sharma A.B. : Epidemiological profile of patients attending a tertiary care hospital, Muktsar, Punjab (India); Research J Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics:3 (6) November-December;2011:311-317

3.       P. Reddi Rani, Rani U., Raghwan S., Rajaram P. Adolescent pregnancy; J. Obstet. Gynaec. Ind., 42 :764,1958

4.       Kale KM, Aswar NR, Jogdand GS, Socio medical correlates of teen age pregnancy; J. Obst. Gynaec. Ind.,46 (1) , 180: 1996 (5).

5.       WHO, Preventing maternal deaths; non – serial publication, 1989.

6.       Mukhopadhyaya M., Silver Shackles : Women and Development in India; Oxford, Oxfam publication, 1984

7.       Harrison P., Inside the third world, Pelican, London, 1979.

8.       Sally D., Pregnancy in adolescents, The Paed. Clinic. North Am. June 1989.

9.       Philips KJ, Selected social, educational, medical characteristics of primaiparous, 12-16 years old girls; Pediatrics, 36:894:1965.

 

Received on 07.03.2013

Modified on 12.04.2013

Accepted on 16.04.2013

© A&V Publication all right reserved

Research J. Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics. 5(2): March–April 2013, 132-133