Tuesday 27 May 2008

Not much blogging about research...

It strikes me that most of my blogging has been about funny things that have happened, or general stuff in India... not much about research... so, a few words on what it's like to conduct this type of social research in the field, in a place where I don't know the language...

It's difficult! As I knew all along, the translator really holds the key - if they're interested, it'll work. If they're not, well.. you're struggling.

But that's all standard stuff, that is fairly obvious. What is less obvious is the way in which people constantly have constantly tried to put me off carrying out my work - everyone in India seems to think they know the answer to everything...

..so when I said this morning that I'm researching about nutrition, I was told by an NGO worker

"See, Sunil - for poor women there is financial problem. For not-poor, there is no problem".

Fortunately I have learnt not to be put off/too influenced by these comments... everything is to be heard, then filtered... before being digested. I have also learnt some follow-up questions..

It is beyond doubt that money, and lack of it, is a major source of problems for nutrition in women. But is it a simple lack of money? Yes, they say. So - why is it that when I inspect random Haemoglobin levels of people in Sindhudurg (measurements taken by blood bank outreach workers), that women have much much lower levels than men? Why is it that women are of much lower weight than men? This isn't all about money, elements of distribution of that money... culture... must enter the equation.

How about the 'not-poor' having no problem? For this one, I visited a local private clinic. Speaking to the doctor, he laughed at me... the problems of low birthweight children, or anaemic mothers etc etc, he said, is prevalent throughout Sindhudurg, in all economic groups.

Many people are amused about my interest in the topic... many people find it slightly pointless. It may turn out to be... but I really think I might have some findings, and would love to see them developed further in the future. Having said that, changing behaviour is extremely difficult, and I'm completely aware of that.

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