Assessment of Health Problems, Needs and Cultural Beliefs of Women in a Rural Area of Karnataka, India: A Participatory Rural Appraisal Method

Abstract

Introduction: Mothers and children are not only a vulnerable group but even a major group consuming health services. In Indian society, Mother and child health (MCH) is surrounded by a wide range of customs and beliefs. Possible attention is necessary to focus on wrong practices and beliefs to prevent health systems to suffer from inefficiency and poor utilization. One of the methods to involve community in identifying and analyzing the problem is participatory rural appraisal (PRA), which helps in drawing framework to understand, analyze and develop programs with communities.

Objectives: (1) To determine the health problems and needs of women in a rural area. (2) To assess the cultural beliefs related to mother and child health in the rural community.

Methodology: Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was conducted with women of a rural village, Giriyapura in Davangere taluk. The methods used in the PRA technique were village mapping, village transect, and focus-group discussion. All the women of the village were informed about the objective of the study and
those who came voluntarily (n=37) to participate were included in the study.

Results: PRA resulted in empowering community involvement among the participants. The participants took charge of identification of health problems and their perceived causes for the same. The health needs were identified and prioritized. Need of transportation was the main priority of the participants. Cultural practices related to mother and child health were charted out.

Conclusion: The most important perceived need of villagers was transport facility. Many cultural beliefs surrounded the mother and child health, of which some were unscientific. PRA was successful to an extent in obtaining information about health problems and needs of the community.