TNAI JOURNAL

Contemporary Indian so ciety professes a profound faith in every individual’s “right to life and dignity”. The rights relating to the weaker & vulnerable sections of Indian society especially women, and more specially the girl child were violated. The twin social evils of female foeticide & female infanticide were the main causes. The various causes of female foeticide & female infanticide were deeply rooted in the patriarchy i.e. the dominant position of men in all matters of domestic life. Today the rejection of the unwanted girls begins even before her birth, pre-natal sex determination tests followed by quick abortions eliminate thousand of female foetuses. Youth constitute an important segment of the society. Apart from being future parents they have immense potential to initiate discussion on the issue at home and in the community. Objectives : The objectives of the study were to: (i) Assess the knowledge of college students regarding female foeticide before and after planned teaching. (ii) Assess the attitude of college students towards female foeticide before and after planned teaching. (iii) Find out the relationship of Knowledge and Attitude with respect to selected variables like (a) age, (b) gender, (c) education, (d) religion, and (e) income of the family. (iv) Find out the views of college students in relation to planned teaching. Assumptions The study assumptions included: The author is Tutor, Training College of Nursing, GT Hospital, Mumbai (MS).	(i) College students may have some knowledge about female foeticide. (ii) Attitude may vary among college students towards female foeticide. (iii) Planned teaching may enhance knowledge and improve the attitude of college students towards female foeticide. (iv) Planned teaching may create awareness among college students and thus make them confident to perform their role in the prevention of female foeticide. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the “General system theory”. The research design selected in this study involved descriptive evaluative approach with one group pre-test post-test design. The population selected in this study comprised of the entire college students studying in the streams of Arts and Commerce in the class XI to Degree programme of the selected colleges in Mumbai Sample and sample size The samples consisted of 150 college students which comprised 75 boys and 75 girls in the age group 18 to 25 years, studying arts or commerce, in class XI to degree programme in selected colleges of Mumbai. Setting of the study: The proposed study was conducted in the selected colleges in Mumbai. Sampling technique: In this study non-probability convenient sampling technique was used . The samples was selected according to their availability and the criteria laid down by the researcher.	Research Tools and Techniques The data gathering technique used was self reporting. Tool 1: A semi structured questionnaire about the knowledge of college students regarding female foeticide, Tool 2: 3-point rating scale, to assess attitude of college students regarding female foeticide, Tool 3: The planned teaching module, Tool 4: Opinionnaire to find out views of college students in relation to planned teaching. Validity : To ensure the content validity, the tool was prepared and given to experts from the field of Obstetric & Gynaecology, Social sciences, Psychology, NGOs working on the issue of female foeticide and Nursing field. After receiving the suggestions and opinions from the experts, relevant changes were incorporated with necessary modifications. Reliability: Reliability of the questionnaire and the rating scale was determined by administering the questionnaire and rating scale to 20 college students. To test the reliability, test-retest method was used. The calculated value of ‘r’ was 0.77 and 0.79 for Questionnaire and Attitude scales respectively. Thus the tools were found to be statistically reliable. Pilot study: The pilot study was conducted on 15 college students from selected colleges in Mumbai as per the criteria laid down for the study and the study design was found to be feasible and practicable. Data Gathering Process After selecting of sample a pre-

test was conducted to ascertain the knowledge and attitude of the college students on first day, followed by the planned teaching, on the same day. This was followed by the post-test on the fifth day. The same process continued till the required number of sample was achieved. Plan for data analysis: The descriptive inferential statistical method was used for analysis of data. Data collected was analysed in terms of frequency, percentage and ‘t’ test and was used to find out the significance and was presented in the form of tables and graphs. Findings of the Study Demographic Profile of the College Students:There was an equal distribution of boys and girls i.e.75 each. As for age, and their family types, 67 percent were in the range of 18-21 years who belonged to the nuclear family. The remaining 50 students were between 21-25 years and belonged to joint family. With regards to their religion, maximum of them (n=60, 40%) were Hindu and 13 percent students were Christians, there were 20 percent Muslim and 27 percent Buddhist students. There were 48 percent college students whose family income ranged between Rs.3001-7000. There was equal number of college student’s i.e. 25 percent whose family income ranged between Rs. 3001-5000 and Rs. 7001- 9000. There were only 28 students	with family income above Rs.9001. The ‘t’ value was calculated by using formula for correlated large group method. Table l shows that there was gain in knowledge and attitude scores of college students. Significant difference in the mean scores of the pre-test and the posttest of knowledge and attitude of the college students regarding female foeticide as measured by the semi structured questionnaire and attitude scale, respectively at 0.01 level of significance. Fig. 1 shows that the overall pre-test knowledge scores of the college students was 3367(47%) in the pretest which increased to 6022 (84%) in the post-test, shockingly the students’ scores was least in the adverse effects of female foeticide in pre-test. The calculated value of ‘t’ for knowledge and attitude was greater than the table value of ‘t’ at 0.01 level of significance. The trend supports that planned teaching brought out improvement in knowledge and attitude. Attitude towards Female Foeticide Initially students hesitated to express their views and remained neutral. However, after planned teaching they expressed their views freely which was observed in post-test scores. Some students became emotional when they learnt how the female foetuses are eliminated in inhuman ways. Relationship of Knowledge and Attitude towards Female Foeticide	with selected demographic variables Knowledge and attitude in relation to age, gender, education, religion family income and family type of college students was found to be statistically significant at 0.01 levels (Table 2). The effect of planned teaching was observed irrespective of their demographic variables. Opinionnaire: The opinions collected from the respondents regarding the usefulness of planned teaching were stimulating. Cent percent said that planned teaching was effective and helps to acquire knowledge regarding female foeticide, which helps in creating awareness about adverse effects of female foeticide. Maximum subjects (67%) agreed that after this session they developed insight not to practice sex determination and sex selection in their life. Implication of the Study a. Nursing Administration: Nursing has a direct impact on the society and the health of the mother. The findings of the study could be used by the nurse administrators to take steps in formulating policies to sensitise people through awareness programme in the community and hospital setting. Nurse administrators can involve college students as “change agents” in creating awareness program-me in the community. b. Nursing Service: It includes preventive, promotive and reha-



bilitative services. The findings of the study can be used by the nurses themselves to become more knowledgeable in providing effective health education. Nurses play an important role in giving supportive and educative care to the people in the hospital, especially to Mothers who were the victim of repeated sex selective abortions. Nurses can educate the pregnant women and her husband about the adverse effects of female foeticide. In the community she plays a role of “social vigilance” and takes necessary steps in prevention of female foeticide. c. Nursing Education: Female foeticide and female infanticide lead to declining child sex ratio which had a disastrous impact on the society in the form of sexual violence against women, sexually transmitted diseases like HIV / AIDS. It also introduced ugly consequences like polyandry, bride selling etc. This is a new dimension, which needs to consider in the nursing curriculum. Nursing teachers can inculcate in students values of human life,	magnitude of female foeticide and their role in creating awareness on the same topic. d) Nursing Research: There are no nursing studies in this area thus, more research need to be undertaken. Recommendations A teaching manual should be developed for the college students and health care workers especially for staff nurses as disseminator of information on the female foeticide. Longitudinal studies can be conducted to assess the female foeticide in the community. Case studies should be done for the couples who had earlier female child. In this area, college students can be used as a “social whistle blower”. Conclusion In the pre-teaching phase, the subjects lacked knowledge in all the areas regarding female foeticide and required information on the same. The study revealed	that if additional information given to the college students regarding female foeticide and its prevention, there would be enhanced awareness in the college students and they could disseminate this information in the society, which will help in maintaining gender equalities. References 1. Polite, Bungler (1999). Nursing Research: Principles and Methods. 6th edn. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott Company 2. Patel Tulasi (2002). Missing girls of India. Journal of economic and Political weekly; 39(1): 887-89 3. Srivastva Alka (2002). “Declining sex ratio: marginalized Girl child” Journal of Womens Link; 8, Jan- Dec: pp 29- 31 4. Indian Medical Association of Maharashtra state branch, with support of UNFPA (2007). Sensitisation of doctors on declining child sex ratio: An information booklet 5. Josantony Joseph and Centre for Youth Development and Activities commissioned by UNFPA (2006). Reflections on the campaign against sex selection and exploring ways forward 6. Basu Banibrata (2003). Economic prosperity and killing of female babies: An interesting experience. The Indian Police Journal. Dec; 50(2):21-23