International Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2015
The upsurge interest demonstrated by academicians, practitioners and students in social work rese... more The upsurge interest demonstrated by academicians, practitioners and students in social work research documents evidence of increasing adaption of social work research as a method of social work by all. However for many, especially for new entrants into research, choosing a research topic or problem and developing researchable questions from it are still difficult tasks. This article focuses on this initial significant stage of research with respect to selection of a broad area and narrowing down it into sub sections. Role of research problems, nature of these problems, when and how problems should be formulated are also discussed. This article addresses own interest of the researcher, information needs of the agency, feasibility of investigating a research question and its significance in social work field as criteria for choosing a problem. Importance of understanding the concepts, dimensions and translating the same into measurable indicators or variables are also explained. It stresses that formulating potential research problems into meaningful terms commands clear and careful thought.
Attitude towards Sexuality: Perceptions of Male University Students in Gujarat, 2023
At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of all forms of sexual violence,... more At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of all forms of sexual violence, including rape of women by men even within intimate relations across the world, it is essential to investigate men's attitude towards sexuality with its intricacies from a gendered perspective, especially when the legal, social and cultural structures continue to fail in challenging the prevailing gendered discourses around sexuality. This study attempts to explore the attitude of male university students towards sexuality and encapsulate the same with gender-specific patriarchal theories. With a descriptive research design, this study interviewed 396 male university students from a chosen university in Gujarat, India, selected by stratified-systematic sampling method from different streams of study. Quantitative analysis underlined and clearly portrayed the unfavourable attitudes towards sexuality held by a large proportion of university students. This study also attempts to illustrate how gendered power inequality highly influences their sexual entitlement and sexual constriction attitudes.
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2019
Despite the progress that has been made by India in many areas, it is sad that girls and women st... more Despite the progress that has been made by India in many areas, it is sad that girls and women still face discrimination in many areas including education which results in their low educational and social status. Education is the key factor for girl’s empowerment, prosperity, development and welfare. The researcher in this study found that there are several problems faced by girls- with regard to their education like child marriage, gender bias, dowry, financial constraints, lack of transportation facilities, cultural beliefs, rural environment, traditional thoughts, family responsibilities and parents’ lack of awareness. Majority respondents are of the opinion that it is only through education girls can have complete empowerment and this can bring complete transformation in the societies. The status of women is also found below as many respondents reported that they do not participate in the decision makings of families. At work place also they face gender discrimination, verbal, p...
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health
Background: Ayushman Bharat-Pradhanmantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) envisages complete financi... more Background: Ayushman Bharat-Pradhanmantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) envisages complete financial protection for around 50 crores of identified poor and vulnerable Indian beneficiaries against their catastrophic health care needs. Awareness is a pre-requisite that ensures enrolment and utilization of any health insurance program. Being a newly implemented scheme, very few studies are reported on the level of awareness, enrolment, and utilization of the AB-PMJAY scheme as well as the sources of information and support to the beneficiaries from Gujarat. So, this study aims to assess the current status of awareness, enrolment, and utilization of AB-PMJAY in Gujarat. Methods: A multi-stage sampling method was used in this cross-sectional study in both rural and urban areas and altogether 1152 households were randomly selected from three districts of Gujarat. Ten trained field investigators collected data with the help of a structured interview schedule. Results: AB-PMJAY is popular in...
Background
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the wo... more Background The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the world, bringing in several work-life balance issues in their lives. The convergence of family and work obligations within the domestic space demanded a multifaceted role performance from Indian women. Married women had more strain due to their unique ascribed gender roles, prevalent in the patriarchal socio-cultural milieu in which they live. Purpose This study aims at demonstrating the impact of Covid-19 on the work-life balance of Indian women through a social role theory and border theory lens. Methods Guided by a descriptive research methodology, this cross-sectional study using purposive sampling method collected data from 305 women employees from a range of occupations in the public and private sectors from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka states of India. Work-life balance is examined as family-work conflict and work-family conflict. Results This paper illustrates how, amid the covid-19 pandemic, the traditional gender roles have exacerbated the family duties of Indian women as well as aggravated their family-work and work-family conflicts. The integration of work and family domains within the pandemic, has also constrained their ability to make transitions between these domains. Furthermore, the findings also highlighted the role of support systems from family and work in strengthening the WLB of women during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Conclusion The findings enhance our understanding of the impact of work from home on women employees' work-life balance during lockdown and the protective and proximate factors associated with it.
At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of abuses against children in it... more At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of abuses against children in its all forms in India and the legal, social as well as educational system continue to fail in either protecting them or empowering them to face their challenges, it is essential to equip them to learn life skills because such initiatives provide the children with a variety of alternative and creative ways of solving problems of everyday life. In this study, the authors attempt to assess the changes witnessed among rural primary school children after three months of life skill education. Improvement in their communication, participation, perception, values, behaviour, and academic performance was included in the assessment areas. Activity-based participatory learning techniques like games, role plays, drama, drawing, and reflections were included in the modules of life skills, which were used in teaching them in a nonthreatening atmosphere. The experiential learning method, which gives opp...
International Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2012
Gender preferences may have substantial implications on the fertility behaviour of couples. Hank ... more Gender preferences may have substantial implications on the fertility behaviour of couples. Hank and Hans-Kohler (2002) suggest that sex preferences for children might have implications for a couple's fertility behaviour, where parents who desire one or more children of a certain sex should tend to have larger families than would otherwise be the case. The absence of sons increases the probability of an additional birth by significantly more than the absence of daughters (Jfriedman et al., 2008). In India as a whole, both attitudes and behaviour are vitally influenced by a long standing preference for sons, which is deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of the society (Mutharayappa, Rangamuthia, Choe, Minja, Arnold,, Fred, et. al., 1997). Education, high financial status and modernisation do not appear to reduce son preference significantly. In this study an attempt is made to find out how the son preference and fertility behaviour of women are related and the effect of demographic variables such as education, income, area of living, religion, number of children, reported ideal family size, gender and birth order of children on son preference.
At a time when there is a severe dearth of men centric versions of intimate partner violence and ... more At a time when there is a severe dearth of men centric versions of intimate partner violence and the perpetuation of the same by men shows anomalous surge around the world, it is essential to investigate the predictive factors of the same with its intricacies from perpetrators perspectives too. Understanding the factors instrumental in making perpetrators of violence, especially when violence on women is the demonstration of men's failure to appreciate the inherent poise and parity of women, can enable us to have policy interventions to involve men as a part of solution in our efforts towards combating all forms of violence, resulted from aggressive masculinity with gender stereotypes, which sanctions use of violence as well as a sense of entitlement over women. This study attempts to encapsulate the links between IPV perpetration and perpetrators' attitude towards gender equality, childhood gender inequity & violence experiences and explores the associations between educati...
IntroductionThe attack on poverty has been sharpened and strengthened by our government by restri... more IntroductionThe attack on poverty has been sharpened and strengthened by our government by restricting and revamping income and the levels of living of the poorest of the poor by introducing MNREGA Act. The war on poverty is been given priority in this Act and its main goal is to remove poverty and create fuller employment. [1] The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is poised to bring cheers to the lives of millions of rural poor with the inclusion of new works under its ambit and the convergence with other flagship programmes. Efforts are on to bring in more transparency and accountability in it with district ombudsmen being envisaged to ensure that the benefits reach out to the poor and the needy villagers. [2]The most important factor which influences the status of a poor is employment. This was viewed in different angles by various experts. Bishiho assumed employment as a state of being engaged in production. [3] AmarthyaSen considered employment is one which gives ...
The size of the family influences the personality pattern both directly and indirectly. Directly,... more The size of the family influences the personality pattern both directly and indirectly. Directly, it determines what role the person will play in the family constellation, what kind of relationship he will have with other family members, and to a large extent, what opportunities he will have to make the most of his native abilities. Indirectly, family size influences the personality pattern through the kind of home climate fostered by families of different sizes and by the attitudes of the most significant members of the family toward the person. Another aspect of the connection between family size and personality is the amount of understanding and empathy found in families of different sizes. In a small family, parents have time to empathize with their children and to communicate with them. In a large family, there is less time, and also, as the number of children increases, the gap between the generations grows wider. This combination of conditions tends to lead to less warmth and...
International Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2015
The upsurge interest demonstrated by academicians, practitioners and students in social work rese... more The upsurge interest demonstrated by academicians, practitioners and students in social work research documents evidence of increasing adaption of social work research as a method of social work by all. However for many, especially for new entrants into research, choosing a research topic or problem and developing researchable questions from it are still difficult tasks. This article focuses on this initial significant stage of research with respect to selection of a broad area and narrowing down it into sub sections. Role of research problems, nature of these problems, when and how problems should be formulated are also discussed. This article addresses own interest of the researcher, information needs of the agency, feasibility of investigating a research question and its significance in social work field as criteria for choosing a problem. Importance of understanding the concepts, dimensions and translating the same into measurable indicators or variables are also explained. It stresses that formulating potential research problems into meaningful terms commands clear and careful thought.
Attitude towards Sexuality: Perceptions of Male University Students in Gujarat, 2023
At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of all forms of sexual violence,... more At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of all forms of sexual violence, including rape of women by men even within intimate relations across the world, it is essential to investigate men's attitude towards sexuality with its intricacies from a gendered perspective, especially when the legal, social and cultural structures continue to fail in challenging the prevailing gendered discourses around sexuality. This study attempts to explore the attitude of male university students towards sexuality and encapsulate the same with gender-specific patriarchal theories. With a descriptive research design, this study interviewed 396 male university students from a chosen university in Gujarat, India, selected by stratified-systematic sampling method from different streams of study. Quantitative analysis underlined and clearly portrayed the unfavourable attitudes towards sexuality held by a large proportion of university students. This study also attempts to illustrate how gendered power inequality highly influences their sexual entitlement and sexual constriction attitudes.
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2019
Despite the progress that has been made by India in many areas, it is sad that girls and women st... more Despite the progress that has been made by India in many areas, it is sad that girls and women still face discrimination in many areas including education which results in their low educational and social status. Education is the key factor for girl’s empowerment, prosperity, development and welfare. The researcher in this study found that there are several problems faced by girls- with regard to their education like child marriage, gender bias, dowry, financial constraints, lack of transportation facilities, cultural beliefs, rural environment, traditional thoughts, family responsibilities and parents’ lack of awareness. Majority respondents are of the opinion that it is only through education girls can have complete empowerment and this can bring complete transformation in the societies. The status of women is also found below as many respondents reported that they do not participate in the decision makings of families. At work place also they face gender discrimination, verbal, p...
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health
Background: Ayushman Bharat-Pradhanmantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) envisages complete financi... more Background: Ayushman Bharat-Pradhanmantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) envisages complete financial protection for around 50 crores of identified poor and vulnerable Indian beneficiaries against their catastrophic health care needs. Awareness is a pre-requisite that ensures enrolment and utilization of any health insurance program. Being a newly implemented scheme, very few studies are reported on the level of awareness, enrolment, and utilization of the AB-PMJAY scheme as well as the sources of information and support to the beneficiaries from Gujarat. So, this study aims to assess the current status of awareness, enrolment, and utilization of AB-PMJAY in Gujarat. Methods: A multi-stage sampling method was used in this cross-sectional study in both rural and urban areas and altogether 1152 households were randomly selected from three districts of Gujarat. Ten trained field investigators collected data with the help of a structured interview schedule. Results: AB-PMJAY is popular in...
Background
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the wo... more Background The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the world, bringing in several work-life balance issues in their lives. The convergence of family and work obligations within the domestic space demanded a multifaceted role performance from Indian women. Married women had more strain due to their unique ascribed gender roles, prevalent in the patriarchal socio-cultural milieu in which they live. Purpose This study aims at demonstrating the impact of Covid-19 on the work-life balance of Indian women through a social role theory and border theory lens. Methods Guided by a descriptive research methodology, this cross-sectional study using purposive sampling method collected data from 305 women employees from a range of occupations in the public and private sectors from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka states of India. Work-life balance is examined as family-work conflict and work-family conflict. Results This paper illustrates how, amid the covid-19 pandemic, the traditional gender roles have exacerbated the family duties of Indian women as well as aggravated their family-work and work-family conflicts. The integration of work and family domains within the pandemic, has also constrained their ability to make transitions between these domains. Furthermore, the findings also highlighted the role of support systems from family and work in strengthening the WLB of women during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Conclusion The findings enhance our understanding of the impact of work from home on women employees' work-life balance during lockdown and the protective and proximate factors associated with it.
At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of abuses against children in it... more At a time when there is an unprecedented surge in reported cases of abuses against children in its all forms in India and the legal, social as well as educational system continue to fail in either protecting them or empowering them to face their challenges, it is essential to equip them to learn life skills because such initiatives provide the children with a variety of alternative and creative ways of solving problems of everyday life. In this study, the authors attempt to assess the changes witnessed among rural primary school children after three months of life skill education. Improvement in their communication, participation, perception, values, behaviour, and academic performance was included in the assessment areas. Activity-based participatory learning techniques like games, role plays, drama, drawing, and reflections were included in the modules of life skills, which were used in teaching them in a nonthreatening atmosphere. The experiential learning method, which gives opp...
International Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2012
Gender preferences may have substantial implications on the fertility behaviour of couples. Hank ... more Gender preferences may have substantial implications on the fertility behaviour of couples. Hank and Hans-Kohler (2002) suggest that sex preferences for children might have implications for a couple's fertility behaviour, where parents who desire one or more children of a certain sex should tend to have larger families than would otherwise be the case. The absence of sons increases the probability of an additional birth by significantly more than the absence of daughters (Jfriedman et al., 2008). In India as a whole, both attitudes and behaviour are vitally influenced by a long standing preference for sons, which is deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of the society (Mutharayappa, Rangamuthia, Choe, Minja, Arnold,, Fred, et. al., 1997). Education, high financial status and modernisation do not appear to reduce son preference significantly. In this study an attempt is made to find out how the son preference and fertility behaviour of women are related and the effect of demographic variables such as education, income, area of living, religion, number of children, reported ideal family size, gender and birth order of children on son preference.
At a time when there is a severe dearth of men centric versions of intimate partner violence and ... more At a time when there is a severe dearth of men centric versions of intimate partner violence and the perpetuation of the same by men shows anomalous surge around the world, it is essential to investigate the predictive factors of the same with its intricacies from perpetrators perspectives too. Understanding the factors instrumental in making perpetrators of violence, especially when violence on women is the demonstration of men's failure to appreciate the inherent poise and parity of women, can enable us to have policy interventions to involve men as a part of solution in our efforts towards combating all forms of violence, resulted from aggressive masculinity with gender stereotypes, which sanctions use of violence as well as a sense of entitlement over women. This study attempts to encapsulate the links between IPV perpetration and perpetrators' attitude towards gender equality, childhood gender inequity & violence experiences and explores the associations between educati...
IntroductionThe attack on poverty has been sharpened and strengthened by our government by restri... more IntroductionThe attack on poverty has been sharpened and strengthened by our government by restricting and revamping income and the levels of living of the poorest of the poor by introducing MNREGA Act. The war on poverty is been given priority in this Act and its main goal is to remove poverty and create fuller employment. [1] The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is poised to bring cheers to the lives of millions of rural poor with the inclusion of new works under its ambit and the convergence with other flagship programmes. Efforts are on to bring in more transparency and accountability in it with district ombudsmen being envisaged to ensure that the benefits reach out to the poor and the needy villagers. [2]The most important factor which influences the status of a poor is employment. This was viewed in different angles by various experts. Bishiho assumed employment as a state of being engaged in production. [3] AmarthyaSen considered employment is one which gives ...
The size of the family influences the personality pattern both directly and indirectly. Directly,... more The size of the family influences the personality pattern both directly and indirectly. Directly, it determines what role the person will play in the family constellation, what kind of relationship he will have with other family members, and to a large extent, what opportunities he will have to make the most of his native abilities. Indirectly, family size influences the personality pattern through the kind of home climate fostered by families of different sizes and by the attitudes of the most significant members of the family toward the person. Another aspect of the connection between family size and personality is the amount of understanding and empathy found in families of different sizes. In a small family, parents have time to empathize with their children and to communicate with them. In a large family, there is less time, and also, as the number of children increases, the gap between the generations grows wider. This combination of conditions tends to lead to less warmth and...
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Papers by Bigi Thomas
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the world, bringing in several work-life balance issues in their lives. The convergence of family and work obligations within the domestic space demanded a multifaceted role performance from Indian women. Married women had more strain due to their unique ascribed gender roles, prevalent in the patriarchal socio-cultural milieu in which they live.
Purpose
This study aims at demonstrating the impact of Covid-19 on the work-life balance of Indian women through a social role theory and border theory lens.
Methods
Guided by a descriptive research methodology, this cross-sectional study using purposive sampling method collected data from 305 women employees from a range of occupations in the public and private sectors from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka states of India. Work-life balance is examined as family-work conflict and work-family conflict. Results
This paper illustrates how, amid the covid-19 pandemic, the traditional gender roles have exacerbated the family duties of Indian women as well as aggravated their family-work and work-family conflicts. The integration of work and family domains within the pandemic, has also constrained their ability to make transitions between these domains. Furthermore, the findings also highlighted the role of support systems from family and work in strengthening the WLB of women during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
Conclusion
The findings enhance our understanding of the impact of work from home on women employees' work-life balance during lockdown and the protective and proximate factors associated with it.
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected women significantly across the world, bringing in several work-life balance issues in their lives. The convergence of family and work obligations within the domestic space demanded a multifaceted role performance from Indian women. Married women had more strain due to their unique ascribed gender roles, prevalent in the patriarchal socio-cultural milieu in which they live.
Purpose
This study aims at demonstrating the impact of Covid-19 on the work-life balance of Indian women through a social role theory and border theory lens.
Methods
Guided by a descriptive research methodology, this cross-sectional study using purposive sampling method collected data from 305 women employees from a range of occupations in the public and private sectors from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka states of India. Work-life balance is examined as family-work conflict and work-family conflict. Results
This paper illustrates how, amid the covid-19 pandemic, the traditional gender roles have exacerbated the family duties of Indian women as well as aggravated their family-work and work-family conflicts. The integration of work and family domains within the pandemic, has also constrained their ability to make transitions between these domains. Furthermore, the findings also highlighted the role of support systems from family and work in strengthening the WLB of women during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
Conclusion
The findings enhance our understanding of the impact of work from home on women employees' work-life balance during lockdown and the protective and proximate factors associated with it.