| dc.description | This chapter attempts to highlight the research background, problem statement, scope and
significance of the research. To have the idea of the research area, this chapter gives the
research questions and the objectives of the study. Finally, the concept of the key words used
in the title and the outline or composition of the dissertation is included here.
1.1 Background of the study
The primary census report of 2011gives the number of ethnic population groups of
Bangladesh as 27.According to the census of 2011 (Source: Population Census 2011, BBS)
The total number of indigenous people in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh was 1,43,425.
However, these figures are a gross underestimation. The indigenous peoples are one of the
largest tribes residing in the north- west districts of Bangladesh. Besides Bangladesh, the
indigenous tribe can also be observed in the neighboring West Bengal and Bihar states of
India. The indigenous peoples who are largely concentrated in the districts of Rajshahi,
Naogaon, Dinajpur and Rangpur are one of the oldest tribal groups in Bangladesh (Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santhal_people as on 03 February, 2014). They are mainly
hunters and gatherers. They largely depend on the common pool resources (CPR) like forests,
bees andharesand above all on the Agra economy for their livelihood. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The present study was conducted among the plain land indigenous families in Dinajpur, the
North-west region of Bangladesh to identify the source-demographic and economic
condition, health access systems, the maternal morbidity and mortality and its determinants.
This study was carried out in the six upazilas namely Dinajpur sadar, Birgang, Nowabganj,
Fulbari, Biral and Chirirbandr in the Dinajpur district where most of the indigenous people
live. Using appropriate sample size estimating formula, a total of 223currently married
women having at least one child of under five years old were interviewed for data collection
with simple random sampling method. The collected data were analysed using univariate,
bivariate and multivariate analyses.
This study comes up with the fact that maternal health status of plain land indigenous people
in North-west of Bangladesh is also poor as national level of the country compared to desired
level. This study shows that more than one-third of women have access to health care
services, which can be one of the most important factors in their poor health. In most cases,
indigenous women (mothers’) faced common problems during pregnancies like headache,
eye vision, cough/fever, excessive vomiting tendency and morning sickness. But major
complications of excessive bleeding, obstructive labor, long-term labor, eclampsia, and
membrane are also seen as their delivery period because most midwives help with delivery,
those who do not have any formal training or education. Practice for delivering care and
current use of contraception are also lower among the indigenous mothers. But in case of
family planning and contraceptive use indicators these studied statistics (CPR=67. 2) were
relatively better than national average.
Maternal mortality situations are also not in desired level due to the practice of preservation
by traditional midwives. The mothers cannot afford expensive health care and medical
facilities due to their poor financial condition and for own cultural heritage. On the other
hand, the indigenous society is still passing through adverse situations regarding their
socioeconomic condition and standard obstetric care facilities.
The factors associated with the use of lower health care and contraceptive use are found that
age of respondents, mothers' education, husband's education and occupation, financial
condition, distance to the service center and access to mass media are significant. This study
recommends that community health centers/ health care in public and private enterprise will
have to increase. Government, NGOs, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other
development partners will have to implement various programs and projects. | en_US |
