Thumbnail Image

Theses

Browse

20174
Reset filters
Subject: Family Resource Management × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2017 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
Reset filters

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    AWARENESS OF WOMEN ABOUT CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Sangma, Stephanie K.; Das, Leena
    The present study on “Awareness of women about causes and effects of indoor air pollution” was undertaken with the following objectives: (i) To assess the awareness level of women about causes and health hazards of indoor air pollution. (ii) To study the role played by housewives in minimising indoor air pollution at household level. A survey was carried out in Jorhat town of Assam. A multistage purposive cum random sampling method was adopted for the purpose of the study. Municipality area of Jorhat was divided into five parts and from each part one ward was selected randomly and 3 per cent of the total household from each ward were randomly selected to constitute a total sample size of 120. Personal interview method was used for data collection. The findings of the personal and socio-economic characteristics showed that most of the respondents belonged to the age group of 25-35 years and majority of the respondents belonged to nuclear family with family size less than 5. Majority of the respondents were found to be graduates and were service holders. The monthly family income of majority of the respondents ranged from Rupees 10,000 to Rupees 30,000. The findings of the awareness level of women about causes of indoor air pollution showed that 49 per cent of the respondents had high level of awareness and 38 percent had low level of awareness and 13 per cent had medium level of awareness. Of all the various causes of indoor air pollution viz., the common sources, sources prevalent inside the kitchen, biological pollutants causing IAP, sources of VOCs and sources of POPs; the common sources was ranked first among all the other causes of IAP as per the respondents’ awareness. Biological pollutants ranked second, followed by sources inside the kitchen, sources of VOCs and sources of POPs. Findings of awareness level of women about health hazards of indoor air pollution revealed that 46 per cent of the respondents had high level of awareness, 36 per cent had low level of awareness and 18 per cent had medium level of awareness about health hazards of indoor air pollution. The respondents were mostly aware about lung cancer caused by exposure to cigarette smoke and was ranked first among other health hazards of indoor air pollution. Overall distribution about awareness of IAP consisting of both causes and health hazards revealed that 49 per cent had high level of awareness, 43 per cent had low level of awareness and 8 per cent had medium level of awareness. Another findings showed that the role performance of majority of the respondents in minimizing indoor air pollution were good (48.33%) with cleaning of house regularly being the most performed role; 43.33 per cent of the respondents had poor role performance, and encouraging others to switch on exhaust fans in the bathroom/toilet when being used was the least performed role. It was found that educational qualification of the respondents had some association with their awareness level about IAP but not with their role performance in minimizing IAP. Age, income and occupation were found to have no association with both awareness level and role performance. However, awareness level of the respondents about indoor air pollution was found to have some influence on the role performance of women in minimizing indoor air pollution.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    HOUSING CONDITION OF TRIBAL AND NON-TRIBAL HOUSEHOLDS IN JORHAT DISTRICT- A COMPARATIVE STUDY
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) YASMIN, SYEDA SHABANA; Bhuyan, Bijoylaxm
    Housing is the physical structure providing shelter, consuming land and providecertain basic services. It has a specific location and once made it is durable (Gandotra, 2006). Keeping it in view the present study on ‘Housing condition of tribal and non-tribal households in Jorhat district- A comparative study’ was carried out in Jorhat district of Assam with the following objectives-  To study the housing environment of tribal and non-tribal households.  To study the selected factors affecting tribal and non-tribal housing conditions.  To study the awareness level of house wives towards the quality housing conditions. In the present study comparison of housing condition of Tribal and non-Tribal housing conditions was done where the tribal respondents belonged to the Mishing community which is a major Assamese tribe. The study was conducted by purposive and simple random sampling method. Two agricultural development officer (ADO) circles located in two development blocks of Jorhat district namely Titabar development block and Kaliapani block were purposively considered for the study having basically agrarian population of both tribal (Mishing) and non-tribal. One tribal and one non-tribal village from each block were selected purposively so that comparison can be done properly having the villages situated in the same locality (block). Accordingly 20 tribal households and 20 non- tribal households from each village were selected by following simple random sampling method and accordingly a total 80 households were selected as sample. It was revealed that the tribal and non-tribal households of similar family income differ in their housing structure. Tribal households had stilted house with raised platform of 5-7feet above ground level, they had less humidity level in their houses and showed no evidence of dampness. They had no drainage facilities for draining out the waste water. They washed utensils on the raised floor (Chang) and let the water fall underneath. Half of the tribal households use to keep their live stocks under the platform where they lived.They mostly incinerate their household waste. Tribal respondents had low cost sanitary latrine provided by government schemes and by the NGOs as compared to the non-tribal respondents which was 55% and were mostly self-constructed. It was encouraging to note that, none of the non- tribal respondents had dug hole latrines and also they did not defecate in open spaces. Open defecation of 12.5% was found among tribal respondents. The study also revealed that majority of the tribal households had bamboo netting as smoke outlet in their house for removal of smoke from the kitchen. Regarding illumination at day and night inside the house, it was found that recommended intensity of daylight and night light was unavailable in many of the rooms in tribal households and thus rooms were inadequately bright. On the other hand, houses of non-tribal respondents were not raised on stilts but on plinth with a height varying from 2-3 feet from the ground level. Humidity level inside many of the rooms was higher than the recommended level and a sign of dampness was observed. They had improper drainage facilities and mostly they kept their live stocks near the house. Majority of them dump their household waste. Recommended intensity of daylight was unavailable in some rooms but majority of them had adequate lighting in recommended level in almost all the rooms at night. They had proper arrangement, grouping and provision of flexibility in the room as compared to the tribal households. Regarding quality of potable water it was not found to be within the recommended level. Experiments revealed that the average bacterial count in the raw form of tube well water used by the tribal (126 CFU/ml) and non-tribal households (124.33 CFU/ml) was almost similar and was higher than the filtered and boiled forms of water used by both the groups. Overall awareness regarding quality of housing condition meeting the criteria of principles of residential planning was less among tribal respondents (22.5%) as compared to the non-tribal respondents (39.43%).
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND HOME LIVING ELDERLY PEOPLE
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Borah, Nilakshi; Bhattacharyya, Nandita
    As a normal process aging affects the well-being of every person in some way. The social implication of this change in age structure will have serious implications and would be felt by various sections of society in different ways. Dependency, both physical and financial tends to grow with age.At the family level, a lot of other changes are also taking place which have a direct impact on the life of the elderly people. Assistive technology is used to support elderly people to get back into their normal life and enhance the independent living. Assistive technology “refers to a broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have functional disabilities” (Cook and Hussey, 2002). Assistive products are available for aiding the elderly to be independent in their daily living activities but people are not aware about the availability of such products in the market. Another issue for users may be poor design of the products. Products may be difficult to use as the targeted market was not addressed. Keeping it view in the present study on „Assistive technology and home-living elderly people‟ had been carried out in Nagaon District of Assam with the following objectives- 1. To assess the prevalence of physical frailty. 2. To study the possession and use of assistive devices by home living elderly. 3. To explore the design needs perceived by elderly people to be in the available assistive devices used for selected activity. The summary responses on physical frailty of studied respondents revealed that out of five indices, only in case of performance of basic ADL, the respondents were found self-sufficient. Low performance in IADL, high incidences of fear of falling, high prevalence of unintentional weight loss and presence of chronic diseases were observed; indicating frailty among the studied respondents. As regards to the use of assistive devices by the respondents, the present study found that only 10 per cent of the respondents were found using assistive devices while the remaining 90 per cent of the respondents do not use any assistive devices. Though the analyses of data had shown low functioning of IADLs among the respondents, especially in housekeeping activities, the use of assistive device was observed very low. The most commonly used assistive devices found was canes for mobility (7.5 per cent), followed by wheel chair (1.25 per cent) and hearing loop (1.25 per cent). In the process of generating design specifications on mostly used mobility assistive device, a cane, few suggestions were came into foreface. Based on design modifications as suggested by the studied respondents effort had been made to redesign the cane.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY ON SELECTION OF INTERIOR WALL PAINTS FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Sonowal, Monika; Das, Leena
    The present study on “A Study on selection of interior wall paints for residential building.” was undertaken with the following objectives- 1. To find out the criteria considered while selecting paints for interior walls and ceiling 2. To develop a guideline for right selection of paint for interior wall A multistage purposive cum random sampling method was adopted to carry out the study. Jorhat Municipality area was considered from which five wards were selected randomly. From each of the wards, by following the probability proportionate to size method the samples were selected purposively and a total of 120 respondents were selected for the study. Interview method was used for data collection. The findings of the personal and socio-economic characteristics of the respondents showed that majority of the respondents (65%) belonged to the age group in between 25-50 years. Forty five per cent of the respondents were educated up to graduation. Majority of the respondents (66.7%) were service holder. Majority of the respondent (46.66%) belonged to the families earning Rs. 50,100 and above. It was observed that for the highest number (41.67 %) of the respondents, it was 1-2 years since they painted their house. Majority of the respondent (95.84%) mainly used paint for beauty or aesthetic purpose and also for protection. Majority of the respondents (91.66%) collect information from the seller while buying paint for interior wall and ceiling. With regard to criteria considered while selecting paint for interior wall and ceiling majority of the respondents always considered brand (75.00%), price (73.34%) and, durability (62.50%). Type of solvent and drying time were never considered by 75.00 per cent and 70.83 per cent respectively. Further according to monthly family income and criteria considered for paint selection showed that 61.40 per cent respondents from higher income group considered brand for selection of paint. Whereas price was considered by large number of respondent from lower income group (39.28%). Durability was considered by only 58.55 per cent of respondents from higher income group. Large number of the respondents from higher income group also considered ease of cleaning (57.14%), suitability (40.24%), stain proof (45.04%), techniques of using (46.66%), green mark on the label (55.55%), types of finish (46.31%), types of material or surface to be painted (52.17%), previous experience (46.00%), drying time (45.71%) and type of solvent (43.33%). Analysis on awareness level of the respondent revealed that half of the respondents were aware about the adverse effect of paint on human health. Based on the findings of the study a guideline was prepared for right selection of paint.