EFFECT OF GENDER BIASNESS ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF GIRL CHILDREN IN NALBARI DISTRICT OF ASSAM
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Date
2021
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
“Every child comes into this world with the message that God is not yet disappointed with man”- a famous quotation by Rabindranath Tagore. But in reality, from ancient times, girl child is neglected and hated even before her birth and is based on centuries-old religious and sayings. With the advancement of humanity, education and awareness, the status of women is changing all over the globe, including India but still in most places the social position and rights of women is confined within the four walls of houses, performing various household activities, taking care of children and families. It represents the dominate nature of men over women. Not only women, but also girls, face discrimination in all segments of society. Early childhood years lay a basic foundation for inculcation of strong base for adult life and success. In that contrary if a girl child encounters gender bias and discriminated against boys in the early stages of her life, it affects her physical & motor, cognitive and emotional wellbeing. Discrimination and neglect in childhood initiates a lifelong downfall which adversely affect the holistic growth and development of girl children. The present study entitled with the general objective as “Effect of Gender Biasness on Growth and Development of Girl Children in Nalbari District of Assam” conducted in Nalbari
District of Assam with four major objectives viz.1) to study the socio economic status of the respondents; 2) to study the gender biasness in the family and society; 3) to study the growth and developmental pattern of girl child as compared to boys; 4) to study the impact of gender biasness on growth and development of girl children. Nalbari district of Assam was purposively selected as locale of the study. This study aimed to make an in-depth understanding of the debilitating practice of gender bias and its effect on the growth and development of girl children. Nalbari and Pachim Nalbari were two randomly selected blocks and one village from each block constituted the locale of the study. Twenty-five households each selected from each block and as a result, fifty households with children of both the sexes were chosen, with a total of 100 respondents as the sample of the study. The demographic characteristics and prevalence of gender bias were independent variables and its effect on growth and development was dependent variable. The socioeconomic status of the respondents included age, gender, family size and type, category, education, social participation, occupation, annual family income, milch and small animals holding and mass media exposure. To obtain pertinent data, personal interview schedule and questionnaire methods were used. Appropriate statistical tools and measurements were used for analysis of data such as Frequency, Percentage, Mean, Standard deviation, Pearson correlation and Paired sample test. The study revealed that majority of the respondents with socioeconomic variables like age; annual family income and mass media exposure were under medium level in the study. Rest of socioeconomic variables like gender (found female-dominated); category (largest part were General); education (majority were educated up to graduate level and above); marital status (all of the respondents were married); family size (mostly up to 4 members); family type (mostly nuclear family); social participation (majority were non- participant in any organization); occupation (majority had business as their primary occupation); house (mostly had pucca houses) and milch and small animals holding (more than half of the respondents do not own any livestock). The findings also indicated that majority of the respondents agreed about the existence of gender biasness in the dimensions of Basic needs, Socialization, Health, Nutrition and Education and strongly agreed in Decision making. Overall majority of the respondents agreed about the prevalence of gender bias in the family and society.The study also revealed that out of a total of 11 variables, 5 variables were found to be negatively correlated with gender bias. The four variables such as age, education, occupation and house were found negatively significant at 1% whereas fifth variable i.e. annual income of
family was negatively significant at 5% level. The Pearson correlation (r) values were -0.429, -0.488, -0.627, -0.544 and -0.305 respectively. However, variables such as sex, caste, type of family, size of family, milch and small animals holding and mass media exposure were insignificant with gender bias.The Paired sample test of different domains of growth and development between boys and girls revealed that boys were significantly (1% level) more developed than girls in the domains of Physical & Motor development and Cognitive development (t values are 33.323 and 4.175, respectively). Girls were significantly more developed than boys in the domain of Moral development (t value is 3.145), which was significant at 1% level. Language, Social, and Emotional development, on the other hand, were found to be insignificant. The present study indicated that girls were less developed in the domains of Physical & Motor and Cognitive development as a result of Gender biasness. Hence, gender bias had an adverse effect on different domains of growth and development among girl children in Nalbari district of Assam.