Sociology || Spring 2015 || Pokhara University

Very Short Answer Questions

Attempt all the questions.

10×2

                     Descriptive Answer Questions

Attempt any six questions

6×10

18.

Case Analysis

Read the following passage and give an answer accordingly

There is a village, named Hasnapur in Rupandehi district, a rural area, composed of 400 household with a population of 1200 persons. Most of the people who lived there were Tharu and Musahars. About 60 percent of the people who lived there were farmers, 20 percent work in town, 15 percent work in foreign employment, and 5 percent working as a vendor. Most of the households are plotted along with small canals named Karmahawa. In general, the villagers looked healthy. People did not consider themselves sick till they were able to work. There were two outbreaks of malaria in the past causing a few deaths. Tuberculosis and intestinal diseases were fairly prevalent but were rarely cause of death. Folk healers and traditional medicine were common means of treatment of illness among the villagers. However, a health center was somewhat 4 km away from the village.

One day a three-year-old girl got sick with Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Her parents, who were farmers after an initial period of apparent unconcern, consulted with their neighbors and were taking some traditional medicine. A week later, the small son of a town (Butwal) workers’ family contracted with the same disease. His parents rushed him to the hospital in town. The child treated by the folk healer died and the child who went to the hospital was cured.

Local administrative and health officers were alert by this event and arranged for an emergency immunization program. The villagers were informed to take their children for JE vaccination on a certain date. The message from the District health officer was given to the VDC Chairperson who in turn asked his relatives to inform the villagers.

On the day of vaccination, the response was spotty and patently inconsistent. It was found that most of the families around the houses of the child who was survived the disease came for vaccination, the rest were not interested.

Questions:

1.       Why did the farmer’s family react to the disease and seek treatment different from the town worker family?

2.       What was behind the uneven response to the call for immunization?

3.       If you will be the hospital administrator, what will you do to introduce the immunization program into the community?

4.       As a student of Sociology, if you will be the national policymaker & planner, what type of development policy and program would you make to enhance the health consciousness in rural areas? Discuss with scientific justification.

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