Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Nomads

Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Nomads

Chandrakant Jamadar

Asst.Professor,Post Graduate Department of Psychology, Maharani Arts & Commerce College for Women’s, MYSORE.

Nomads are known as a group of communities who use to travel place to place for livelihood.  Some are service providers like salt traders, fortune – tellers, conjurers, Ayurvedic healers and some are jugglers, acrobats, grindstone makers, story – tellers snake charmers, animal doctors, tattooists, basket makers.  All throughout India the anthropologists have identified about 500 nomadic groups in India, numbering perhaps 80 million people around 7% of the country’s billion – plus population (Nomads in India: Proceedings of the national seminar – by P.K. Misra).The nomadic communities in India can be broadly divided into two groups as pastoral (A single work of art, poetry, music or drama) and peripatetic groups, peripatetic nomads are the most neglected and discriminated social group in India.  They have lost their livelihood because of drastic changes in transport, industries, and production, entertainment and distribution systems.

            Pastoral nomads in India are distinguished from other nomads in India in that they breed animals and this distinguishes them from other groups such as the salt selling people (Lambadi).  These people reside in the Himalayas, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.  The livestock of the pastoral include buffaloes, sheep, goats, camels, cattle, donkeys and yarks.  The pastoral groups are: Ahir is an Indian caste.  The term can be used synonymously with Yadav, as the latter term refers to Ahirs who have identified as Yadavs.  Dhangar are a herding caste primarily located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Kurumbar of Southern India is reasonably considered to belong to the same race.  The word dhangar may be associated with a term for “cattle wealth”, or be derived from the hills in which they lived.  Kurumbar are shepherds of South India.  They are indigenous people of India, Even though they are called in different names like ‘Kurumans’, ‘Kurumba’ or ‘Kuruba’ and these names are synonyms and one and the same. They seak Kuruman tribal Kannada language.  They God are Veerabhadra (Beera dhevaru).  They celebrate the God by breaking coconuts on their heads. They celebrate the God by breaking coconuts on their heads.   Their surnames are Gounder, Gowder, Heggade, Naiker and others.  They are known as Dhangar in rest of India.  Gaderia is exclusively used for the cattle grazing community of Nortth India.  Gaderia, Charvaha, Gwala and Gujar are synonyms of herdsman.  They are also known as Dhangar, Baghel or Pal.  The Gaderia are a caste of shepherds, goat, cow herders and Blanket makers some scholars, believed that, the name is derived from the Hindi word Gadar (Sheep) through it is debatalde because the word Godar which means sheep is not a Hindi word it is from Bundeli.  Gavli is a postoral community found in the states of Goa and Maharashtra in India.  The word Gavli means a milkmen or herdsmen in the Marathi language and refers to a number of communities that practice, or at one time practiced pastoralism (agriculture, raising livestock) in Western India.  Gurjar are an ethnic group in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan the origin of the Gurjars is uncertain, they clean appeared in ancient North India about the time of the Huna invasions of the region.  In the 6^th to 12^th Century they were primarily classed as Kshatriya and Bhrahmin and many of them later converted to Islam during the Muslim rule in South Asia.  Today the gurjars are other backward class in some states of India.  Rabari or Rewari live throughout Rajasthan and Gujarat states in India.  The word Rabari basically means the “outsiders” because they use to do the traditional trade as time passed.  The main businesses are raising cattle, camels and goats.  Rabaris are mainly dependent on the milk profession.  Other communities like them are identified by different names in different regions of the country like Maldhari, Dhanger and Gowda etc. Form the formation of nomads in India to take place is due to the rise and fall of many Kingdoms, which could be seen in the history of India.

Ethnically, those semi-nomadic slum people are mixed cast and of multi-religious like Muslim 17.2%, Hindus 34.7%, Buddhists 46.3% and others 1.8%. Some semi-nomads have majority of Muslim or majority of Buddhists families, while some have majority of Hindus. In 3 to 4 semi-nomadic areas there are Christian families and it is found that these are converted Christians. In some semi-nomads Hindus have a small temple of some god but not everywhere. These semi-nomadic people the Dombidas, the Silyakyatha and the Koramas don’t visit city temples. They practice their religion mostly in their native village; they attend religious fairs and festivals or local festivals according to their own castes and customs. Muslims go and observe daily the prayers or Id prayers in Masjids which are open to all. Quite few semi-nomads have two or more antagonistic faction within their small world and these factions have become a cause of hindering their economic development and challenge to administrators and disappointing factor even for social workers. Unless these factions are minimized, programs such as Common community centre, Mahila Mandal and juvenile guidance centre cannot succeed. Hence it is a very difficult task for all agencies but with affective co-ordination of voluntary agency, local leaders and administrators, it may be possible. Information, education, conflicts and social distances programs of shared living need to be emphasized.

Economically, these semi-nomadic families that is the Dombidas, the Silyakyatha and the Koramas spend their lives by scrap picking, children sometimes begs or steal, women toile by working in small cottage industries for some amount of income for the family. Their income would be 300 to 1000 rupees per month. If there are other members who work and earn for the family then it would be an added income to the family for their survival. They cannot improve their standard of life or invest for the future. Some have reported little amount of savings where as some have reported debts.

Economic conditions of the semi-nomadic people cannot be improved if the price of food grains, oil, fuel and vegetables are too high for their earnings, leave aside other items such as milk, sugar and fruits which are very essential items of diet. As long as high prices of essential food items continue to rise and these items are not distributed through controlled shops in enough quantity, poverty of these semi-nomadic communities will continue. Same is the condition about clothes and clothing’s to cover. Many semi-nomadic people cannot afford to purchase new clothes. They depend mostly on second-rate clothes, given away clothes. Unless these basic needs are not taken care of by introducing special distribution system, such situations are likely to continue for another many years.

Unemployment, In almost every family there is at least one or more than one person of working age-groups. Although unemployed persons are not reported by all, these community people are more in number than those reported. The cause of unemployment are ‘service not available’; ‘failed in examination’; ‘fired or removed from service’; ‘poverty’; ‘don’t have any skill to work’; ‘no experience’; ‘ill health and handicap’. There is cell or bureau to maintain records of these unemployed persons within the semi-nomads. It is rather difficult for these poor people to get any type of employment because of their low economic status, no credibility or nothing to impress the job-giving agencies. When asked as to how many years are these persons unemployed, the period reported varies from 1 year to 5 years. Some semi-nomadic families like the Dombidas, Silyakyatha and Koramas have to wait for even more than that period. These unemployed people are dependents, idle and as such are a nuisance in the families rather than assistance. Even if they assist it not regarded as valuable by other members or neighbors and as such it leads to personal disorganization of those particular individuals.

Because of poverty, unemployed status and humiliation these semi-nomadic communities show poor inner containment, confidence and initiative. When they were asked as to which work they will give priority, majority of them said ‘Government Service’ or ‘Factory service’. As their relatives have got jobs in Industries or in Government or similar services, they think in the same manner. These services are secured and reliable with less work to do seem to be their impression. Business, trade, tailoring or any kind of self-service seems to be beyond their imagination.

If they do not have a chance to have experience in these sources it is very difficult to inculcate confidence, initiative and then skills required to provide these sources. As the city grew, services of various types become the benefits of these schemes are being enjoyed by already settled and suitable groups of city population. Many young boys have started working as mechanics carpenters, masons and hawkers but at a very low income. Since they work with private owners and employers they are not paid as per minimum Wages Act. They do not get work for the whole month also. Some are being paid piece-work wise and as such have to remain sometimes without work.

When asked as to which field they wish to enter, many told ‘industrial’, ‘technical’, and not ‘teaching’ or ‘professional’. The level of education and literacy being low they could visualize and could attract themselves to ‘technical’. Unless the government provides technical education to youngster and women of different age levels that is required for different jobs, unemployment is going to increase into a serious issue.

Housing, 99% houses are ‘Kaccha’ built in mud, pasted with cow-dung or mud occasionally. A house with one room has one door and one or two windows which are at a very low height(maximum 7-8 feet) with tin roof or pram roof and in some cases big stones are placed on it to avoid the sheets from flying during rainy season. Bed, linen, utensils, cot, chair, cooking and sleeping are done in that one room. For some semi-nomadic people they is no sufficient place to dry they clothes and even take bath in open where only the four sides would be covered and the top will be opened. The height of the bathing room of these semi-nomadic people will be 3 to 4 feet not higher than that. Many houses were said to be clean in the inside that is because the dust from the house was put in the open areas and as a result the surrounding area would be polluted. Some of these semi-nomadic communities are found to have very poor housing and almost all live in insanitary conditions.  

Sanitation and water, sanitary latrines, as far as possible private, cheap and easy to operate attached to underground drainage are very much needed. Not only that the sanitary latrines have to be made available to these semi-nomadic communities, but also what is more difficult but essential is that they have to be motivated to use these latrines regularly and to maintain the necessary cleanliness standards. From the point of view of environmental sanitation finding on these items are not at all satisfactory. Water has been provided in every area of the community. However, the public taps do not work properly sometimes and some places the people misuse them.

Social Political Life, most of the semi-nomadic people are silent on these matters. They are engrossed in their daily routine and economic activity that they get tired at the end of the day and hardly realize its relation with their life. During elections or at the time of any issues many of these are taken to these activities by local leaders and political party workers. Youths and local active members organize meetings on some political and national days’ celebrations. Voluntary organizations have adopted some semi-nomadic peoples, for their activities and as such women, youth and sometimes children are organized to participate. Besides these there is hardly any social and political involvement. Exposure to other mass media such as films, T.V, Radio, books and other printed informative material is very limited. Most of these have not found to have reached these households to any great extent which indicates the futility of depending on the printed word for dissemination information on health, education, addiction, nutrition and any aspect of family welfare. When asked about dowry and inter-caste marriage, in order to know their social awareness, it was found that majority of families are not in favor of inter-caste marriage.

Health, in general health services are not widely available near the semi-nomadic communities. Utilization of health services is poor, though an attempt has been made to find out the pattern of utilization of health service in the semi-nomadic area. It has not been possible as to why people do not utilize even the available resources. Majority of the semi-nomadic communities reported that there are no ill people suffering from Asthma, T.B or even scabies which looks deceptive. To improve community health and health status in general, regular and preventive medical services are essential. Similarly to reduce morbidity due to illness, it is necessary that the semi-nomadic communities need health education and guidance about nutrition, child care, maternal health and personal hygiene. Health guide and health post for each community like the Dombidas, the Silyakyatha and Koramas is very important. Economic and education level wise, these semi-nomadic people are in same level as thousand of villages. By providing health guidance services for the family welfare and healthy environment would help the people to have healthy living.

Child care, about 50% of these semi-nomadic peoples in the families are ignoring or having the traditional beliefs and prejudicial practices. As such these families are not taking care of immunizing the semi-nomadic children below 6 years against B.C.G. Polio and T.B. About second dose is negligence, fear and non-compliance. Recently, corporation is undertaking these programs with seriousness. What is lacking is the on the part of the semi-nomadic communities. The main reason for their non-corporation is due to poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, idleness, traditional beliefs and Practices, general level of intelligence is very low and local politics.   

Education of Children, the school attendance of school going children’s age (6-15 years) is not bad. The semi-nomadic people have Aunganvady (nursery for kids below the age of 6 years) which makes the children to develop an interest for education at a low age.  Mid-day meals are given to the children. The mid-day meals programmers, nutrition-check up, health-checkup are the programmers which need continuous follow-up.

METHODOLOGY

Statement of the problem

“DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND STRESS AMONG NOMADS”

Aim of the Research

The aim of the present investigation has been to know about “Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Nomads.”

Objectives of the study

1.      To know the depression, anxiety and stress among Nomads.

2.      To identify the differences in depression, anxiety and stress in different communities.

3.      To find out differences depression, anxiety and stress in different age groups.

Hypothesis of the study

1. There is significant relationship between depression, anxiety and stress among Nomads.

 2. There will be difference in depression, anxiety and stress of different communities.        

3. There is significant difference in their depression, anxiety and stress in different age groups.

Variable

·         Independent variable: Nomads Age and Gender.

·         Dependent variable: Depression, anxiety and stress.

Samples 

The sample comprised of total Three hundred (N=300) Nomads from different places from Mysore district, out of which Hundred from sillekyatha (n=100) Dombidas Hundred (n=100) and hundred from Korma (100) out of Three hundred male (n=150) female (150).

Tools

Interview schedule with attendant technique has been used as tool of data collection. Technique of interviewing and observation has been used for gathering information. Standardized toll are selected for this study through this tool their used to measure depression, reliability and validity. The method of testing has been of much help in holding such tests

     Depression Anxiety stress scale by Lovibond (DASS) (1995) . Internal consistency reliability coefficients for DASS-42 items, depression, anxiety stress subscales and full scale were found to be high with cronbach’s alphas of .89, .85, .81 and .95 respectively. For DASS-21, these values were .79, .71, .76 and .89.

Statistical analysis

According to the plan already prepared uni-variate and multi variate table were drawn variables have been so arranged that definite inference regarding to presence or absence of actual relationship as hypothesized may be drawn. In order to arrive a different conclusions. Statistical method has been applied but greater reliance has been placed on statistical methods. These regarded as we used the test-mean, SD, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

  Table: 1. showing mean, SD and F-value of Depression of different Nomads group. (N=300).

Group	Mean	SD	F-value
Sillekyatha	28.07	2.00	*12.40
Dombidas	28.29	1.95
Korma	29.50	2.55
Total	28.62	2.68

*Significant at .000 level.

A significant difference was observed among above three selected groups in their mean depression score. Where F-value is 12.40 was found to be highly significant. The mean depression score of three groups, Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Kormas are 28.07, 28.29 and 29.50. The total mean score is 28.62 respectively. Further Scheffe’s post hoc test indicated that three groups have depression, but the Kormas have more depression than the other two groups. All the multiple comparisons of mean differences were found to be highly significant at .001. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted.

The reason for their depression is that most of the people are unemployed, Illiterate and lack the basic necessities in their daily life.

Graph No. 1. Shows the graph of depression.

Table: 2. Mean score of Anxiety among Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Korma respondent’s groups results of ANOVA. (N=300)

Anxiety	Groups	Mean	SD	F-value
	Sillekyatha	24.08	4.09	*12.78
	Dombidas	24.78	3.95
	Korma	26.83	3.94
	Total	25.23	4.15

*Significant at .000 level.

A significant difference was observed among the above three selected groups in their mean score of Anxiety. Where F-value is 12.78 which shows highly significant. The mean anxiety score of the three groups- Sillekyatha mean score is 24.08, Dombidas mean score is 24.78 and Korma mean score is 26.83. The total mean score is 25.23 respectively. Further Shheffe’s post hoc test indicated that three groups have anxiety, but kormas have more anxiety than the other three groups. All the multiple comparisons of mean difference were found to be highly significant at .000 levels. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted.

The three groups have high level of anxiety, but the Kormas are more in anxiety level compared to the other two groups. The reason for high level of anxiety is because of low sales for their good and the materials (Bamboo) used for making the baskets are costly. These people don’t have proper houses to stay food and clothing. They also move from place to pace in order to sell their good as a result these people are more prone to high level of anxiety.

Graph No.2.shows the graph of anxiety.

Table: 3. Mean score of Stress among Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Korma respondent’s groups results of ANOVA. (N=300)

Stress	Group	Mean	SD	F-value
	Sillekyatha	29.89	3.25	.121
	Dombidas	29.96	2.97
	Korma	30.09	2.45
	Total	29.98	2.90

Above table reveals the mean score for stress among the three groups, they are the Sillekyatha mean score is 29.89; Dombidas mean score is 29.96 and the Kormas mean score is 30.09. The total mean score is 29.98 respectively. There is no significant difference. Hence the hypothesis is rejected.

The three groups do not have high level of stress. The reason might be that these three groups of nomads reside in the same area where their share the same environment that is not all that stressful.

Graph No. 3 shows the graph of stress.

Table: 4. Total mean of DASS score of Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Kormas respondent’s group results of ANOVA. (N=300)

DASS	Groups	Mean	SD	F-value
	Sillekyatha	82.04	6.75	*14.45
	Dombidas	83.07	5.70
	Korma	86.40	5.44
	Total	83.84	6.25

*Significant at .000 level.

A significant difference was observed among the above three selected groups in their mean score of Depression, Anxiety and Stress. Where the F-value is 14.45, which is found to be highly significant. The mean score of Sillekyatha is 82.04, the mean score for Dombidas is 83.07 and the mean score for Kormas is 86.40. The total mean score is 83.84 respectively. The three groups have high level of depression, anxiety and stress, but the Korma is more compared to the other two groups. It is highly significant at .000 levels. Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.

The reason for high level of depression, anxiety and stress among the kormas is due to poverty, lack of income, and for women they do not have the required materials for cooking, problems during menstruation, child rearing and caring the day to day routines.

Graph No.4. Shows the graph of depression, anxiety and stress.

Table: 5. Total DASS score of age groups among Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Kormas and the results of ANOVA. (N=300).

DASS	Age group	N	Mean	SD	F-value
	10-20	42	84.60	7.33	.487
	21-30	128	83.95	6.06
	31-40	84	83.73	5.95
	40 & above	46	83.02	6.37

A significant difference was observed among the above age group in their mean depression, anxiety and stress score. Where the F-value is .487 which is not significant. The mean score of the age group is 84.60, 83.95, 83.73 and 83.02 respectively. There is no significant. Therefore, the hypothesis is rejected.

Graph No. 5. Shows the graph of DASS.

CONCLUSION

Many of the challenges that confront nomadic communities today can be attributed to continue caste based discrimination and alienation from settled communities. The combination of modes technology and legislation aimed at eco-conservation has caused the diminishment of traditional livelihood leading to widespread impoverishment. Regional and national government have not taken measures to address the problem of narrowing livelihood or provided support for these communities. As a result it is found that there is depression, anxiety and stress in different communities, age groups and gender according to the results obtained.

1.      There is significant difference in depression, anxiety and stress among Nomads.

2.      There are significant differences in differences in depression, anxiety and stress in different communities.

3.      There is a significant difference in depression, anxiety and stress in different age groups.

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