Experts opinion on indigenous child care practices followed by rural women of Kumaon region, Uttarakhand

ABSTRACT This paper examines experts opinion regarding child care practices (birth- two years) followed by rural women of Kumaon region. An exploratory study was conducted in Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand state. A sample of 120 rural women was selected randomly from two blocks i.e. Garur and Kapkot. Personal interview along with participatory rural appraisal techniques and discussion with rural women were used as a technique to collect the information. Apart from rural women, the indigenous knowledge was also documented from key informants, local health workers and aged women. For experts opinion a questionnaire was prepared for scientific validation and contemporary relevance of the documented indigenous practices on 3 point continuum as scientific, unscientific and uncertain. Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge, Child Care Practices and PRA Techniques Beser.A, Topcu S., Cockun A., Erdem,N., Gelisken R. And Ozer, D.2010. Traditional child care practices among mothers with infants less than one year old. Journal of Traditional Child Care Practices. 3: 137-145. Marsh, D. R., Darmstadt, G. L., Moore, J., Daly, P., Oot, D. and Tinker, A. 2002. Advancing newborn health and survival in developing countries: a conceptual framework. Journal of Perinatology. 22: 572-576. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Women and Child Development (Food and Nutrition board), Government of India.2004. National guidelines on infant and young children. Retrieved from http://wcd.nic.in/ nationalguidelines.pdf on 8 May, 2014. Nirmale, V.H. and Santosh.2003. Indigenous wealth of nation, Employment news weekly, pp-1-2. Romano, R. M. 2005. Research summaries of normal birth. Journal of Perinatal Education. 14: 2090-2096. Sinha, R. 2004. Traditional infant health care practices prevalent in the tribal areas of Hazaribagh district. MSc. Thesis submitted to Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur. Udaya Lakshmi, K and Babitha, B. 2014. Dietary intake and nutritional status of women in rural Guntur district. Biolife 2014;2(4); 1120-1124. Winch, P. J., Alam, M. A., Akther, A., Afroz, D., Ali, N. A., Ellis, A. A., et al. 2005. Bangladesh PROJAHNMO Study Group. Local understandings of vulnerability and protection during the neonatal period in Sylhet District, Bangladesh: a qualitative study. Journal of Lancet. 366: 478-85