North Bengal Anthropologist, Vol. 03
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/5277
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Item Open Access Forms and Applications of Folk media in West Bengal: Notes from Empirical Observations(University of North Bengal, 2015) Bandyopadhyay, SumahanFolk media are a part of traditional media that do a great deal of communication in our society particular in the areas where the reach of conventional media is limited or discouraging. There are a number of folk media traditionally present in predominantly rural West Bengal. An attempt has made in this paper to classify these folk media and to know the current state of their applications. Here evolution of folk media vis-à-vis folk journalism has been discussed. The examples of various forms of folk media have been presented to show that it basically rooted in the particular socio-economic context. Thus one cannot deny the relevance of folk media even today.Item Open Access Rhymes and Riddles in the Texts and Contexts of Folk-Games in West Bengal: An Ethnographic Study(University of North Bengal, 2015) Das, AbhijitFolk-games are one of the important indigenous elements of expressive folkculture of West Bengal till the advancement of culture under globalization. These games, being orally transmitted tradition, are part and parcel of the pastime recreation of the rural children. The variegated patterns of folk-games can be broadly categorized as chasing, rhyming, chance, jumping, counting and so on. Some game texts, consisting of rhymes, riddle, couplets, etc often express certain cognitive as well as historical aspects of age old Bengali culture of West Bengal. These may also be considered as the vital elements of folk-literature, too. Now-a-days due to the impact of urbanization, industrialization mass media influence as well as modernization, the folk as well as indigenous elements in the game texts are changing rapidly. A very time has come to let them survive and revive from their probable extinction in near future from the wider gamut of folk culture of the Bengali core. Folklorists, anthropologists and historians should have the responsibility to study those vital elements of folk culture of West Bengal in the era of globalization.Item Open Access Awareness of Education and Scheduled Caste: A Case Study(University of North Bengal, 2015) Chowdhury, MadhurimaA trend has emerged of not defining education as a "human right" anymore, but of rather calling it a "human need". The Scheduled Castes are historically disadvantaged people who are given express recognition in the Constitution of India. During the period of British rule in the Indian sub-continent they were known as the Depressed Class. The caste system has created and sustained an unequal opportunity structure, which is anathema to the egalitarian principles which are the basis of a modern democratic society. What is worse, it intensifies and perpetuates the sufferings and servitude of disadvantaged caste class groups by reducing their access to development benefits vis-a-vis the higher caste class groups. The right to education originates from the apparent motion that it is obligatory for the state to provide education to its citizens. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2010 describes the modalities having the provision for free and compulsory education for children between 6 to 14 years under Article 21A of the Indian constitution. This Act makes education as fundamental right of every child enforceable by law. Education is empowerment for socio-economic mobility, an instrument for reducing socio-economic inequalities, and equipment to trigger growth and development. In India, the total literacy rate is 74.04%. The male literacy rate is 82.14% and the female literacy rate is 65.46%. The literacy rate of Scheduled Caste males is 73.0% and that of the female is 52.1%. The study was conducted at Ramchandrapur village of Bangaon Sub-Division of North 24 Parganas covering both the sexes of the Scheduled Castes to understand the gender disparity, if any, in the studied villages. The objective of the study is to understand Right to Education and Right to Equality of Scheduled Caste, to study the nature and level of education of Scheduled Caste, particularly examining the disparity of education, if any, and to study educational rights and awareness about the rights among the Scheduled Caste.Item Open Access Issues of Child Rights: A Case Study(University of North Bengal, 2015) Biswas, Samar Kumar; Gan, BiswanathChildren are the building blocks of a nation. If they are provided the appropriate kind of development, they contribute to the nation’s growth in a big way, when they grow old. However, today the violation of child rights is widely rampant and it is a crucial issues overall the world. They are child, therefore, they cannot protest against it. They are not able to demand, they have no capacity to form a union, and probably incapable of seeking, and therefore public opinion about the rights of the child is not supposed to be claimed by the child itself. It is necessary to be done by those who are responsible for taking care of the child. The children have no right to demand in the sense they have not the capacity to demand but the child has accepted rights as given in the convention. In this context, the present study has been done on the child workers in Balasan River Basin of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India, where most of the people are engaged in stone based economy and earned very little, which is not sufficient for maintaining their daily livelihood. Most in cases, the parents of these children are unable to provide the necessary requirements to their children; and thus, from the very beginning, most of the children are bound to engage in this work to support their families. Due to this fact, most of the child workers are deprived of their basic rights like food, shelter, proper education, health; and leisure and recreation, intellectual development, growth, freedom and so on. There are so many factors responsible for it. In this concern, in the light of child rights violation- how the children are being exploited in the economic field; and how their education, health, and development as well are being affected have been discussed in this article.Item Open Access Deforestation: Issues and Impacts on Agriculture- an Ethnographic Study in the village Chirudih, Purulia, West Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2015) Ray, BedprakashItem Open Access Extremist Violence and Life of the Indigenous People inside Red Corridor in India(University of North Bengal, 2015) Midya, Dipak KIndia’s mineral-rich districts in and along the so-called Red Corridor are the abode of the country’s poorest of the poor indigenous people. It is no surprising that these people are mostly illiterates and have been suffering from severe malnutrition. For the last four decades or more, the region has been extremely affected by the extremist violence led by the Maoists vis-à-vis the counter-insurgency programme of the state. The people, mostly tribals, living in the midst of the two embattling forces operating across the region are now bewildered. They are losing many of their socio-cultural distinctiveness. The paradoxes between the Maoist ideology and acts made the indigenous groups worry of about the contradictions between the projected aspiration and apparent result of the extremist violence. In the course of time, they are found to distancing themselves from the movement and adopt a survival strategy based upon the revival of their ethnic consolidation. With a case study of Junglemahal in Southern Bengal, the present study observes that stronger the elements of ethnic consolidation, lesser the possibility of engaging with the extremist violence.Item Open Access Anoxia Nervosa: A Brief Introduction(University of North Bengal, 2015) Tigga, Pushpa LataAnoxia Nervosa Eating disorders are relatively rare among the general population. This review discusses the literature on the incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of eating disorders. Study searched online Medline/Pubmed, Embase and PsycINFO databases for articles published in English using several key terms relating to Anoxia Nervosa an eating disorders and epidemiology. Anorexia nervosa is relatively common among young women. While the overall incidence rate remained stable over the past decades, there has been an increase in the high risk-group of 15–19 year old girls. It is unclear whether this reflects earlier detection of anorexia nervosa cases or an earlier age at onset. All eating disorders have an elevated mortality risk; anorexia nervosa the most striking. Compared with the other eating disorders, binge eating disorder is more common among males and older individuals.Item Open Access Decision Making in Family Planning: A Human Rights Issue(University of North Bengal, 2015) Biswas, Homprabha; Ray, SubhaA woman has the right to control over her own body and take decision regarding reproductive health free from any form of coercion, discrimination and violence. She further has the right to be informed and have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning. The present study was conducted on a group of married Muslim women of West Bengal with the objective to understand the role of these women in taking decision in adopting family planning practice and choosing contraceptive types. Data on socio-economic details, family planning practices and decision making ability were collected on 100 women, who were in wedlock and with at least one child. Results of the study reveal that 69 per cent of the study population was adopters of family planning, and in all the cases the husbands of these women took decision in choosing contraceptive types.Item Open Access Incidence of Colour Blindness among the Santals of East Singhbhum, Jharkhand(University of North Bengal, 2015) Karmakar, Sarnendu; Biswas, SubirItem Open Access Socio-Economic and Environmental Dimensions on Health: A Study on the Santals of West Midnapore and Bankura(University of North Bengal, 2015) Roy, SamikThe most interesting feature of the tribal economy is that the majority of the tribals depend on agriculture, but they do not depend on it exclusively. Their economy is also based on forest collection and daily labour work; it is considered as a significant occupation among the tribals. Collection of forest products is a very common practice among the Santal tribes residing mostly in the eastern part of India. They not only collect different food items from the forest, but also earn through it when the surplus items are sold at the local markets. The tribal health is also connected directly or indirectly to their economic and socio-cultural conditions and environmental situation, particularly the forest ecology. This paper attempts to explore the implications of socio-economic factors and forest on health on the Santals of West Midnapore and Bankura Districts of West Bengal.