Poster session on Society and culture

In spite of modernization and women’s increasing role in the market economy, the practice of dowry in India is becoming more wide spread evidences shows that, the value of dowry is increasing. In India marriage is typically arranged and the practice of dowry is common in most part of the country (Karve, 1965). Data for this study is taken from “The Youth in India: Situation and Needs” survey conducted during 2006-2007. a sub nationally representative survey, and Crime in India (2008-2011) from NCRB to explore this dimension minutely. Results reveals that dowry death is on rise from 2008 to 2011 at the national level. Finding indicates that dowry is universal phenomenon in all the sates and it is not restricted with religion. To note here, dowry increases with economic standard, however chance of receiving and giving is less in love marriage and in those who are living in nuclear families. Interestingly men in southern states are having significantly higher chance of receiving dowry. But it is interesting to note that if we see it through the lens of crime records southern states stands other way round. At regional level percentage share of dowry death in Bihar is around 15 percent.

Fertility has declined across several Indian states of late (1970s), with varying historical points of onset and pace of decline. Women in Uttar Pradesh still bear four children due to interplay of socioeconomic, demographic and cultural factors. Rarely role of diffusion was examined in precipitating fertility change in the India. To investigate the role of women’s social network towards influencing actual fertility and fertility preferences in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. The study is based on egocentric social network data from 567 women 18-35 years. Discussions on matters of child bearing (MoCB) with women social network partners (SNP) had significant negative association with CEB by woman. Accounting for interaction between MoCB and density of SNP, there appears positive association of discussion of MoCB and increasing density of SNP with children ever born in rural UP. This suggests operation of social influence to sustain high fertility in the study area.

Aim- To understand and explain the temporal process and dynamics of decision-making on intrapartum care for first births among the urban poor in India.
Methods- The study uses a qualitative longitudinal research design. Two stages of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in January-July 2012 with primiparous women, as well as their husbands, mothers-in-law and/or mothers (depending on the composition of their household around the time of the birth). The first interview was conducted in the third trimester of pregnancy and the second within the first 8 weeks postpartum. 16 households were sampled purposively from 12 slums in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Data were coded and analysed thematically.
Results- Households identify and register at a facility as a priority, but leave financial and transport arrangements until the final stages. Where intentions for home delivery are influenced by strong norms and/or lack of experience with the health system in general, planning and preparation is limited. Intentions may change during pregnancy and outcomes do not always match intentions, regardless of preparedness, due to multiple influences at the individual, household and health system levels. There is a need to reconceptualise decision-making and birth preparedness as temporal processes with non-linear courses of action.  

International migration from Sub-Saharan Africas (SSA) is increasing in number and stable at around 10% of the total global international migrants during the period from 1990 to 2010. When differentiated by language group, it is revealed that English-speaking SSA migrants are more prone to go outside of SSA and to Anglophone countries such as USA or UK, whereas French-speaking SSA migrants move mostly within SSA and those who go beyond the continent move basically to Francophone countries such as France. The domestic (internal) mobility in SSA does not show language-specific difference on the country level, but the provincial level analysis reveals that English-speaking capital areas are more mobile than French-speaking capital areas. There is indeed a cultural, linguistic push and pull relationship in terms of international migration and also one can assume that the strong pull from Anglophone developed countries had caused the high mobility in the English-speaking capital areas of SSA. This hypothesis suggests that the international migration is induced not only by economic pull but also on cultural bonds, and the global movement interacts with domestic mobility.

Recently, thanks to the increased presence of hot demographical topics on the Internet and the media, demographic themes have become accessible to and enjoyed by a wider public. Among non scientific fields, film production is particularly interesting because it represents a means of communication with a strong cultural impact. The aim of our work is to investigate in what way migration has been represented in a procedure that is not the traditional one of scientific research: following a quantitative approach, we intend to look through the European film production of the last twenty years to see the image of the migrant and of the phenomenon of migration that is transmitted in the destination countries.
The first step was the creation of a specific Database on European films on Migratory topics (EMFD). The second step consisted of carrying out multivariate statistical analysis that showed how the representation of migration is very close to reality.
The work carried out highlights a new perspective for socio-demographic studies, though there still remains the problem of constructing exhaustive qualitative and quantitative databases. The value of this contribution lies in having taken the first step in this direction.

This paper examines disparity in childhood malnutrition (underweight) across the ethnic groups in India and its region using three rounds of the National Family Health Survey conducted during 1992-2006. Descriptive statistics and pooled logistic regression analysis were applied to measure the disparity in childhood malnutrition across the ethnic groups. The prevalence of underweight differs considerably between the Scheduled castes/Scheduled tribes (SC/ST) and other caste; underweight among the SC/ST in India being substantially higher than other caste. The prevalence has declined among the other caste while it has stagnated among SC/ST over the study period. Pooled logistic regression results suggest that the disparity in underweight has increased across the ethnic groups in India over the last two decades. The findings call for dedicated policies, in line with those already existing to improve the socio-economic status of the SC/ST in India, to tackle the rampant childhood malnutrition among the SC/ST in India.

The Internet has massively altered the global information flow in a given population. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others, make it easy for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing population to communicate with the rest of the world. The effect of Internet use on social relationships is still a matter of intense debate. While there is a burgeoning literature on the role of ICT in the creation of new forms of social networks, dubbed on-line communities, much less attention has been paid to the complex set of relationships which are emerging between some off-line communities and the internet, and in particular to some of the new spatiality that is emerging as a result of community-based ICT practices. This paper develops this work by focusing on the social media networks (SMN) among Deaf Population and its demographic outcomes. The paper then goes on to explore how Deaf people are using the social media to communicate with each other and how the SMN and internet is contributing to the re-spatialisation and scaling-up of Deaf community, while having other unanticipated effects on mobility of Deaf population.

Cambodians socio-economy was changed from socialist to capitalist in the 1989. As almost Cambodian people (96.9%) follow the Buddhist practice (Census 2008), but why Cambodian young people celebrate Valentine’s Day which is coming from Western culture recent years?

A new Valentine’s Day phenomenon were explore related to love and sexual relationship among young couples in Phnom Penh aged 15-24 years old on Valentine’s Day 2008. The qualitative results showed that more than half of the interviewees in the study were happy to engage in sex on that day and at least a few of them lost their virginity. Although most reported using condoms, several instances of coercion were also reported. There seems to be a lack of parental understanding about their children’s sexual activity and a corresponding lack of open communication. (Soprach, 2009)

The quantitative descriptive study 458 young people were interviewed in a two week prior Valentine’s Day in Phnom Penh in 2009. The quantitative results showed that 12.4 percent of young people will be able to have sex upcoming Valentine’s Day. Alarmingly, 66 percent of males planned to have sex with their partners regardless of consent. (Soprach, 2010)

Interventions should be continued and targeted young people and their parents before and on Valentine’s Day.

People selectively reveal secrets to or withhold secrets from each other and this behavior affects listeners’ perceptions of the people with whom they interact. I examine secret-keeping and telling using the test cases of abortion and miscarriage in the United States. I exploit their demographic similarities and that they vary with regard to stigma; miscarriage being a near-random event is analytically fruitful. Through a unique survey representative of American adults, I document that abortion secrets are told to sympathetic people and kept from those who may react negatively to the information -- even within families. As such, though abortion is a more common event that affects more women, more Americans come into knowing contact with a woman who has had a miscarriage. Consequently, people with positive attitudes toward abortion hear these secrets and will hence perceive and experience a heterogeneous network whereas people with negative attitudes will not hear about the abortions of the women they know and hence perceive and experience a homogeneous network, even if they live within the same circles. If individuals effectively exist in networks tailored by others to not offend them then the social change predicted by contact with diverse individuals will be thwarted.

This study aimed to identify the components of social participation in Korean society and to examine the processes through which the components of social participation influence the degree of suicidal ideation people experience across age groups. Survey data from the 2010 Seoul Welfare Panel Study were used. the aggregate dataset was categorised into three groups by respondents’ ages. The groups were defined as ‘young adults’ (aged 20-39), ‘middle-aged adults’ (aged 40-64) and ‘the elderly’ (age 65 or more). Three dimensions of social participation were identified by factor analysis – friendship network & hobby group, religious involvement and instrumental social participation. In the young adult group, only instrumental participation was statistically significant (-0.10, p=0.06). In the middle-aged adult group, only friendship network & hobby group had a strong association with suicidal ideation (-0.11, p=0.01). Interestingly, for the elderly, religious involvement was related to suicidal ideation, but in a positive way (0.26, p=0.02). After further analysis, it was concluded that there was a strong association between depression and suicidal ideation among the elderly. The study results showed that different components of social participation are associated with a lower risk of suicidal ideation across age groups.