Socio-demographic and professional profile of trained indigenous dais
Sawhney, N.; Pandey, G.D.
Popcen News Letter. Population Centre 4(7): 1-5
1978
PMID: 12233604 Document Number: 440404
A report on the socioeconomic and professional profile of the dais (traditional Indian midwives). Plans are for increasing their effective involvement in ante- and postnatal childcare and delivery and family planning. The authors consider dais good candidates for the purpose because of their already accepted position and function in traditional village life. The study included the following: 1) background information, 2) professional training, 3) opinion and knowledge about family welfare program, 4) willingness for family planning work. Income studies were also undertaken. The results (presented in tables) show the following for trained dais: 1) they fell mostly in the 30-49 age bracket, making them peers of their clients, 2) 93% are illiterate, 3) 96% are Hindu, 4) 61.3% had other jobs as agricultural laborers, 5) median income from deliveries was 40 rupees, 6) median income from other sources was 25 rupees, 7) husband's median income was 58 rupees, 8) total median income was 122 rupees. Another table shows that the majority of the trained dais entered the field as a family profession (82.7%) and at an age of between 15 and 30 years. Most had worked at the occupation less than 5 years. Each dai performs an average of 4.5 deliveries per month in the village and 1.9 per month elsewhere. The fee received is an average of 1.50 rupees and 3.3 kgm. of grain. A final table includes data on the training of the dais (duration, stipend received, year of training); it was found that 90.7% of the dais did not know the type of training they received. The authors conclude that the training of dais in population planning should continue, since the effect of lower birth rate on their income will not be a significant factor in the dais' attitudes and because the dai is already an accepted member of the community.