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5.3.1 Descriptbn of methods
la) Ethnographic Methods
Ethnographic methods are used to collect descriptive plctures of what people actually
perceive and do The methods are flex~ble and enable the researcher to revlew events,
action, norms, values etc, from the perspective of people who are be~ng studied.
Thereby the researcher is able to gather a holistic understand~ng of the psycosociocultural
settings in which the research is being conducted (Hudelson,l994).
The ethnographic methods used in the current study Included focus group discuss~ons,
In-depth lntervrews, key informant interview and nonparticipant observation. Focus
group discussions (FGD) are designed to obtain information on part~cipants' beliefs
and perceptions on a given issue. The moderator uses a predetrrmined list of open-
ended questions which are arranged in a logical sequence, lndepth interviews (IDI)
intens~vely Investigate a part~cular issue In a glven indiv~dual. The purpose is to gain as
complete and as detailed an understanding as possible of the concerned issue. The
lnte~iews are usually held with the help of a semistructured interview guide. In a key
informant interview, information on various issues is gathered from carefully chosen
key informant(s) at different points of time uslng informal discussion. Nonparticipant
0bbe~ation~ are chancelplanned observation made on specific issues informally over
a long period of t~me.
(i) Key informant interview
During the process of taking census, rapport was established with the community and 2
key informants were identified. They were, Selvi, a 18-year old girl who had completed