indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

was Intended to collect a w~de cross sect~onal vlew of the community on health
problems of school age ch~ldren Only such of those who were w~ll~ng to talk freely
were selected for the dlscuss~on w~th the help of the key informants Each group had
8-10 parhapants These dlscuss~ons were mostly held In the VHN s res~dence They
were generally conducted ~n the forenoon around Ila m or In the afternoon around
3 30p m since the partlc~pants were free to take part In the dlscusslons only dunng
these hours The dlscusslons were moderated by the lnvestlgator herself and each
lasted for about 1-1 5 hours
All the d~scuss~ons were recorded on aud~o tapes afler
taklng Informal consent from the partlclpants A total of SIX focus group dlscuss~ons
were held The groups were as follows -
1 Two groups each comprlslng 8 marr~ed women (25-45 years old) w~th ch~ldren
2 A group of 8 marr~ed men (30-45 years old) w~th ch~ldren
3 A group of 7 school teachers
4 A group of 8 school gofng c'llldren (10-15years old)
5 A group of 7 pararned~cal workers worklng at the PHC
In-depth lnterv~ews were held wlth 8 marned women (25-45 years old) who had
ch~ldren Attempts were made to Interflew men However these were not successful
slnce most of the men felt that they would be unaware of the health problems of
ch~ldren Th~s could be due to the fact that ~n the culture of the village mothers were
generally respons~ble for ch~laren s health (The general response was
How wlll I
know? All those thlngs only mothers w~ll know) Care was taken to vlslt the women
when they were not very busy w~th thecr household chores so that they were relaxed
and free to respcnd Each lnterflew lasted for about 45 mlnutes All the lntervlews
were recorded on aud~o tapes w~th the consent of the respondents