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Union Parishad in Bangladesh is the lowest tier of local government. It faces multidimensional hindrances for assessing and collecting revenue from their local sources. The researchers in this paper recognized the political hurdles that the UPs representatives experience in mobilizing revenues under their dominion. It presents the hurdles that were identified by the researchers through primary data sources and reviewing literature related to local revenue mobilization issues. In this study, revenue refers to the amount of local revenue that the UPs collect under their authority through taxes, rates, and fees. Revenue mobilization is the process by which the UP collects, manages, and utilizes its locally available revenue resources to realize its community needs and expectations. The reseacrhers implemented both quantitate and qualitative approaches (Mixed Methods). To satisfy these study objectives, under the Pirojpur District, two Upazilas–Nesarabad and Nazirpur were selected in the same way. After that, the two Unions–Atghar Kuriana and Jalabari under Nesarabad Upazila and two Unions–Matibhanga and Sreeramkathi under Nazirpur Upazila were selected in the same way. Questionnaire Survey, Focused Group Discussion (FGD), and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were carried out systematically to collect primary data. Fifteen community people from each Union and their total numbers were sixty. All chairmen, members, secretaries and four tax collectors were the respondents and their total numbers were sixty. The total number of respondents of the study were one hundred and twenty. Majority of the local (70%) told that politically chosen chairman cannot avoid the pressure of political leaders in local revenue mobilization. In the study, 95% tax collectors admitted that local revenue mobilization is affected by the local political leaders significantly. The local people (42.13%) were dissatisfied with the role of local political leaders and only 14.67% were very satisfied. It was also found that the relationship between MP, UNO and Chairman of the UZP are hampering its collection in many ways.

KEYWORDS: Revenue mobilization. Upazilas. Political hurdles. Legal provisions. Progress agenda. Dynamics of power. Open budget.

The study of parenting role and attitudes towards child healthcare practices is not only a burning issue for the proper physical as well as psycho-social development of the children but also important to understand the magnitude of gender disparity, equality, and equity in developing countries like India. In order to conceptualise these consequences, the present study aims to investigate parents’ (mothers-father dyad) role and attitudes towards children healthcare seeking behaviours by incorporating 177 families (373 preschool children) from different settlements living in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. Multistage cluster Sampling was used to select the families. Data were collected on healthcare practices performed by their parents by using structured and pre-tested schedules. It was found that there exist significant difference between boys and girls for healthcare seeking measures, where boys were being significantly placed better than girls. The healthcare practices of the girls were significantly lower thereby raising serious public health issue and required to be addressed properly for better gender equality and equity.

KEYWORDS: Gender role. Healthcare seeking behaviour. Hygiene. Gender disparity. Parental perception.

Isochromosome is a structural chromosomal abnormality where there is an abnormal transverse division of the centromere, so that there are either two short or long arms. The present study aimed at finding out the incidence of isochromosome. Karyotyping was done on 460 patients with different clinical diagnosis, who were of all ages, male and female, attending the laboratory of Division of Human Genetics, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bangalore. Cytogenetic analysis of peripheral blood lymphocyte by GTG banding was done. The karyotyping of 459 patients was normal with 46 XX or 46 XY karyotype. One patient ( 0.2%) had 3 different cell lines - 45, X (60%)/ 46,X,i(X)(q10) (35%)/47,XX,i(X)(q10)(5%).

KEYWORDS: Isochromosome. Xq. Karyotyping. Incidence. Translocation.

Malaria has remained a major public health problem in India, with cases therein contributing significantly to the overall malaria burden within South East Asia. Majority of malaria cases in India have occurred within the eastern and central regions of the country. Over 80% of the country's total malaria cases have been reported from 10 states. Statistics for the state of West Bengal had reported approximately 26,000 and 25,000 malaria cases in 2014 and 2018, respectively, with Kolkata still being considered the most malaria-prone district of West Bengal. A cross-sectional study was designed based on data collected from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, documents on Taltala area residents during the winter. Collected data included age, sex, malaria category, medicine intake history and others. Outcomes following medication, such as chloroquine tablets, artemisinin-based combination therapies, and primaquine, were also assessed. A total of 120 patients was included, the vast majority of whom were males (88.3%). Vivax malaria (87.5%; mean age of cases, 37 years) predominated over falciparum malaria (12.5%; mean age of cases, 28 years). Fewer cases occurred in October (49.16%) compared to November (50.83%), suggesting the prevalence of malaria during the winter. The current study showed that uncomplicated malaria cases predominated. Moreover, severe malaria was infrequent, no fatalities occurred, and response to oral drug therapy was good.

KEYWORDS: Malaria. Seasonal trend. Control strategies.

Pregnancy in women is accompanied by a number of physical, physiological and psychological changes which is a normal phenomenon. Timely and regular utilization of antenatal care (ANC) service can help in identifying and minimizing risks of mother and infant during pregnancy thereby reducing maternal mortality. The objective of the present study is an attempt to analyses the associations between education, household income and family size on antenatal care utilization. Overall antenatal care utilization rate is relatively high among the women of Sumbuk village, in south district of Sikkim, with (75.2%) against 21% and 58.4% for the overall India and Sikkim respectively. In Sumbuk, antenatal care utilization rate was increasingly high with the increase in educational level of the women. Thus, in order to have a safe motherhood through adequate utilization of antenatal care there is a pressing need to improve female literacy besides alleviating poverty.

KEYWORDS: Antenatal care. Antenatal care utilization. Ever-married women. Safe motherhood. Socio-demography. Sumbuk village. Sikkim.

Effects of different variables on the resting blood pressure were examined among adult males in a village of Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh. Path analysis was performed using multiple regression equations. Prevalence of hypertension was found to be considerably lower than that of the national prevalence. Path analysis reveals direct effect was much higher than indirect effect in case of all the variables in both the blood pressure excepting the variable namely diet in diastolic blood pressure. In which, indirect effect was recorded to be higher than direct effect. Variables like diet, alcohol consumption and central obesity emerged as important determinants of systolic blood pressure. While, variables like body built, diet, BMI, and central obesity emerged as important determinants of diastolic blood pressure.

KEYWORDS: Resting blood pressure. Correlates. Multiple regressions. Path analysis.

Ethnography is an analysis and systematic interpretation of culture in the dimensions of time and space. Ethnography is a firsthand account of the social life and culture of a particular human community or society obtained through the procedure of long-term and face-to-face fieldwork. The present paper is to report the ethnography of the Wanchos. The Wanchos is one of the tribes of earlier Tirap district and currently Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh, a north-eastern state of India. They occupy the western part beyond the Tista river in the erstwhile Tirap district. The villages are generally situated on hilltops. This paper highlights the characteristics and factors that have and are being contributed to the primitive status of the Wancho tribe. The data were collected from Luaksim village of Kanubari block, and two villages viz. Senua and Zedua from earlier Tirap district and now Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh. Fieldworks were conducted during 2013-16. A total of 262 households from the Wancho community were surveyed. The present study’s ethnographic notes are based on the field observations, informal discussions with the villagers, and in-depth interviews with key informants.

KEYWORDS: Wanchos. Ethnography. Jhum cultivation. Longding. Kanubari block. Arunachal Pradesh.

Present cross-sectional study aimed to explore the health seeking behaviour and its relationship with socio-economic status of the Santals residing in rural and urban areas of West Bengal. Demographic, socio-economic and health seeking behaviour data of 340 adult Santals of either sex were collected using pre-tested questionnaire/schedule. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results show disparities exist in socio-economic status of rural and urban people. Allopath treatment is predominant in both rural and urban areas but rural people prefer to visit Government health centre for cheap/free treatment whereas urban people choose to visit private allopath practitioners because of faith/effectiveness. Few individuals have reliance in treatment of homeopath practitioners and traditional healer. Occupation and economic status show significant association with health seeking behaviour of this group. The finding depicted health seeking behavior of an indigenous group where occupation and economic status play crucial role.

KEYWORDS: Socio-economic status. Choice of treatment. Santals. Bankura district. Rural-urban residence.

Malnutrition creates a major public health problem and it increases the morbidity and mortality rate in adult as well as children. The objective of this study was to investigate nutritional status of mother-child pairs in Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. Data was collected from 420 school going children and their mothers using multistage random sampling. It was observed that 65.4% mother-child pairs were of normal weight. Chi-square test demonstrated that there was a significant association between children and their mothers’ nutritional status. It was also found that gender of children, children’s age, mothers’ age, fathers’ occupation, children playing outside were the significantly associated with motherchild pairs nutritional status. However, logistic regression model demonstrated that mothers’ age was an important predictor of malnutrition among mother-child pairs. These findings can help the health authorities of Bangladesh Government to up-to-date their strategies for improving the household level nutritional status among two vulnerable groups – mothers and their children.

KEYWORDS: Nutritional status. Mother-child pairs. Upazila Godagari, Rajshahi district. Bangladesh.

The government to increase the representation of the historically underrepresented and excluded group in the Civil Service of Nepal has promulgated affirmative action or reservation policies for women, indigenous nationalities, and other groups. The unitary lens of culture and politics inserted a crucial foundation stone in the systematic emergence of social inequality in the past. Still, a reservation policy was formulated based on the assumption of Janajati (ethnic) as a unitary entity. Not all Janajati groups are the same economic, political, and social conditions. There are no government studies relating to under-representation and over-representation in Civil Service within Janajati groups. In this context, this paper provides answers to questions of which Janajati groups benefited more from the reservation policies in Civil Service. Is there a male creamy-layer or female creamy-layer? Moreover, what is the situation of representation of Janajati based on the categorization of the Nepal government's categorization of Janajati into five groups? This paper explores the representation of the Janajati in Civil Service after the implementation of the reservation policy. The paper argues that the provision of the reservation is more favorable for the advantaged Janajati group than the most marginalized Janajati group. Similarly, it is more favorable for male Janajati than female Janajati within the same group, thereby potentially reproducing social inequality within the Janajati in Nepal.

KEYWORDS: Reservation. Janajati. Civil Services. Nepal. Creamy layer. Social inequality.