MENTAL HEALTH AMONG NOMADS
Chandrakant Jamadar
Abstract
Nomads mean “a member
of a group of people who have no fixed home and move according to the seasons
from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land” The aim of the
present investigation has been to know about “mental health among Nomads. Sample: 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). Tool: Mental Health Inventory by Dr.
Jagadish and Dr. A.K, Srivastava (1983).This mental health inventory consist of
54 items, with six dimensions.
Statistical method: 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.Result: As a result it is found that
there is significant difference in their mental health
Asst.
Professor, P.G Studies in Psychology, Maharani’s Arts and Commerce College for
Women, Mysore – 05
Introduction
Nomads in Mysore are people who
migrated from Andhra and settled in boron lands of Mysore. These people speak Telugu and other languages
like Marathi, Hindi and Kannada. These people
reside in Mysore and they area is known as Ehekalavyanagar. There are three communities of peoples like
Dombidas, Silyakyathas and Kormas. These
semi nomadic people are also called with different names the dombidas are also
called as Dombas, Korma as Koramarus. The Dombidas are semi – nomads, who were
messages’ who use to carry the important information form one kingdom to
another. These people who often travel from place to place and if they spot any
sort of trouble going on or going to happen to the kingdom that they reside
nearby, they would inform the king of that kingdom and they would be rewarded
for the noble act done by them towards
the safety of the kingdom. Like the Domidas the silyakyathas are people who put
on masks or disguise themselves to get information from the neighboring
kingdoms in order to protect their favoring kingdom. They use to stage dramas
for the soldiers, or entertain the people in the village in order for they
survival. In some case the silyakyathas us to disguise themselves either as a
sage or soldier, fortune-teller, flower seller etc, and enter the enemy kingdom
or fort to get the required information. The Silyakyatha people use to make
different sounds to communicate with the birds, and also the same bird sounds
were used as important signals to protect people from danger or to wage war.
The signals used by these people were one, two or three message signals. The
first signal was used as a warring for their people at the hidden places to be
ready for battle were as the use of the second and third signal was a message
for the people at hidden place of the battle field to begin war. The
silyakyathas use to train animals and birds in order to get other animals and
birds as food for them as a means of survival. This is done in a way were the
trained animal or bird is placed in a open area and the animal or bird beguines
to make all sorts of sounds that attracts other animals and as a result they
easily fall a prey. Kormas on the other hand are another set of semi-nomadic
tribes who were soldiers for certain kingdom, because these Kormas are very good
hunters as well as weapon makers. Like the other semi-nomadic tribes that is
Dombidas and Silyakyatha, the Kormas are also well known as messengers. These
people not only just hunt animals for the needs of food satification but also
hunt down man at battle fields. The Kormas use to favor kings of the area they
resided and to see that the kingdom does not undergo destruction. But in some
cases if the information given by these peoples (Kormas), is wrong and has
caused destruction of the kingdom, then the king would order his soldiers to
destroy or wipeout the whole clan of those people. Because of the fear of the
king and his anger of killing them, the Kormas use to flee away to the deepest
forest in order to protect themselves of being killed. As a result these people
use to survive by eating the fruits of the forest and hunt down animals. On the
whole the semi-nomads that is the
Dombidas, the Silyakyatha, and the Kormas begin to beg from the neighboring
villages and towns for they living as days and years passed by, but up to now
some of them live they life’s on robbery. But now a day’s these semi-nomadic
tribes are settled in particular places and their are taking interest in
gaining education, working in industries, small factories, as masons, sweepers etc
for they livelihood, but among them some are trying to keep up their
traditional works. Even though they live in free democratic places like Mysore,
they are still living under harsh social conditions because of the caste
system, poverty, unemployment and ignorance of the government. And also face
social discriminations time and again.
The Silyakyatha are referred to by
various names, such as Kiliket, Killekyatha, Katabu (Einthoven 1922; Bijapur
District, Gazetter 1888), Killikyatha (Nanjundayya and 1 year 1930; Thurston
1909) Killiaketar or Chhatri (Dharwar district Gazetter 1888), Gombe Rama
(Paramasivaiah 1972). The Government of
Mysore (1967) has used the terms like Silyakyatha, Killekyatha and Katabu. The ‘sillekyatha’, ‘Killekyatha’ and ‘Katabu’
are one and the same group of people.
The Sillekyatha are listed in the category of scheduled castes for the
areas of the east, while Mysore province the Sillekyatha and Kataba are listed
in the category of Nomadic and Semi-nomadic communities by the State
Government.
The Silyakathas are known for they
leather picture showers (togalu gromba ata).
The leather picture showers were once very popular in rural areas and
the Silyakyatha depended mainly on it for their livelihood. As time pass by and availability of other
modes of entertainments like the cinema, films etc., and the popularity of the
leather picture shows is said to decrease.
Apart from leather picture shows as they jobs, they also used to ‘Fastening
selvage of blankets’ and other materials.
The Silyakathas have been found moving from one place to the other is
mainly to carryout they economic activities.
The
Koramas are semi-tribes that dwell in different parts of Karnataka. This
community is found largely in the Southern India state of Andhra Pradesh.
According to Wikipedia and encyclopedia the Koramas are also known as Koli
=> Cooli => Coolie Bantu (Telugu language) = Faithful Servant Bande
(Punjabi language) = Faithful follower Ramoshi = Ram vashi = Controlled by Sri
Rama Romanichal (Romani) = Faithful follower of Sri Rama. The people of this
community are called with different names in different parts of South India.
They are called as Kuruvar or Kuruvar in Tamilanadu, Koramas or Koracha in
Karnataka, Kaikadi in Maharashtra, Siddanar in Kerala and Kattu Naicker in
Pondicherry. Prior to the British colonial rule, all these communities were
part of that great big community since they were no real boundaries in India at
that time. People from these communities used to roam around freely for their
trading purpose. The Koramas or Yerukalas are divided into a number of
functional and endogamous sub-divisions and each such sub-division is named
after the commodity, which they traded in and the occupation they adopted. The
sub-divisions of Koramas are Dabba (those who make baskets from split bamboo),
Eethapullala (Date twigs) (those whom make baskets from wild date leaves),
Kunchapuri (those who make weaver’s combs), Parikamuggula (sooth Sayers and
beggars), Karivepaku (hawkers of curry leaves), Uppu (salt hawkers).Each
sub-division is divided into four prates viz., Kavadi, Sathupadi, Maanupadi and
Mendraguthi. The first two prates Viz, Kavadi and Sathupadi are considered to
be superior to the other two. Each prate is further sub-divided into a number
of exogamous surnames. Endogamy at community level and exogamy at prates and
surnames level are observed. The splitting of this great community into
numerous small communities is attributed to the Indian caste system. The people
from this community in each state got their own identity and lost the relations
with their brethren in other states.
The
Koramas of Mysore are also people who migrated from Andhra Pradesh. They are
known for they work in Basketry and are called as Basket-makers. The area in which
they live comprise mostly agriculture land and forest and the tribe continues
to make use of the forest produce- principally, bamboo and creepers- for the
manufacture of baskets today. But in the recent days they are settled in the
villages/towns and trying to make their way out of the poverty and the
sub-human standard of living which has been denied to them since age.
We
don’t know the exact information about this culture ambiguity of the land. Some
of the experts believe that the word “Dombi” came from “Domvi” Telugu word
“Dommi” meaning Rush or Noise. These people are famous for their drama
(Theater). While the dramas are
conducted by these people the audience or the crowed would laugh and shout with
laughter and enjoy themselves. There would be lot of rush or noise during the
dramas. In Karnataka the Dombidasas are known as Alamare people. We don’t have
any explanations (study) about this group. H. V Nanjundappa and Ananth Krishna
Iyer had studied about these groups in south India and they these dombidasas
were named as ‘Dasari’ and ‘Donga Dasari’ as two separate caste. And ‘Dombi
Dasari’ is also known as separate caste. In Dasari there are some many sub
casts and ‘Dombidasaru’ as one of the sub cast. In 1901 as per the counting
this group created Godumodasari, Dombidasaris, Domadasaru, Shankdasaru,
Chakrvedhi dasaru these are the sub cast in the group. As per Anath Krishna
Iyer Desabagadasaru, Kathun Dasaru, Athadasaru, Bandigedasaru, Namadharidasaru,
Shanivaradasaru these are known as different casts. Dombidasaru are known as
forward cast. This group main work is known as ‘Dant Kalla’ or ‘Donga’.
In
1901 as per the Karnataka censes Dombidasaru and Dasarigat spread all over the
place in Karnataka border that is Tamil Nadu, Tanjuwada, Madurai and Andhra
Pradesh, Ananthpur, Hindupur. Basically
these groups belong to Andhra Pradesh. These people are also known as ‘Singers’
in Vijaynagara Arash time. These people had spread all over South India and at
that time they were known as ‘Dandidasaru’.
When Krishnadevaraja ruled vijanagara, these people would go all over
the place near the kingdom collecting information and send those messages that
are collected and put in rolls that are what the people believed. These people
use to entertain the soldiers and work as detective towards the authorities.
According to Ananth Krishna Iyer these people use to stage dramas, sing in the
streets as well as beg. They use to sing ‘Dombi’ that is why these people are
known as Dombidasaru.
Dombidasaru
are vaisnaras. They are Tirupati Thirumala swamy believers. As per the early culture, they should at
least once visit the temple Tirupati and donate money. Some of these people
when they visit the temple they don’t put any money so they are known as
‘Kalladasaru’ (Thief’s).
There
is a myth that when two men’s were walking on the road, they saw parvathi
passing she is said to be the most beautiful lady. These men had approached
here and asked her hand in marriage. But parvathi was very anger so she cursed
them to become gays. But then both the men begged parvathi to take away the
curse, so parvathi told them to wear the ladies saree, makeup and entertain the
people and also earn money in all the places to remove the curse. From then
forth these dombidasaru wear the ladies dress and do the Yaxagana. As per R.V.S
Sundaram Telugu Dasaru are in so many different cultures, dambidasaru baring
two communities, first is known as Vaishnava and Andhra Haridasaru. In Krishna
devaraya poetry Moladasari are having stories, in that the backward cast and
dasari Vishnu Nama are having a story. In those stories Moladasari is a great
believer in god. It is published in a paper called Massa in 2002. In Andhra
Pradesh Vijayawada District Uppalur village historical chanakeshwar temple of
purohithara are there. 200 years back Moladasari made as purohit by a
king. Uppalur (village) are having 8000
population most of them are forward cast. Moladasari are purohits those times
they also use to do Government work also. As per Krishnamurthy and Kesavasdasa
in the 14th century the Brahmans were social workers. The senior
citizens believed the story that a war had taken place with Nagamma Brahmans
for Dalitha to take chankeshwar Vigraha, then they went to Uppalur in 335 and
in that place they were established.
METHODOLOGY
Statement of the problem
“MENTAL HEALTH AMONG
NOMADS”
Aim of the Research
The
aim of the present investigation has been to know about “mental health among
Nomads.”
Objectives of the study
1.
To know the mental health among Nomads.
2.
To identify the differences in mental
health in different communities.
3.
To assess the mental health in gender.
4.
To determine mental health in different
occupation.
5.
To find out the differences in mental
health in different age groups.
Hypothesis of the study
1.
There is significant relationship in their mental health in Nomads.
2. There will be differences in mental health,
in different groups of nomads.
3. To signify the
difference in mental health in gender.
4.
There will be difference between occupations due to their mental health.
5.
There is significant difference in their mental health in different age groups.
Variable
·
Independent variable: Nomads Age and
Gender.
·
Dependent variable: Mental health
·
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 mental health reliability and validity. The method of
testing has been of much help in holding such tests.
1.
Mental Health Inventory by Dr. Jagadish
and Dr. A.K, Srivastava (1983).This mental health inventory consist of 54
items, with six dimensions.
2. 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.
Result
and Discussion
Table: 1
Mean Scores of Mental health among groups of Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Korma
and results of ANOVA.
Mental health
|
Group
|
Mean
|
SD
|
F -value
|
Sillekyatha
|
120.25
|
7.38
|
*1.39
|
|
Dombidas
|
120.85
|
7.36
|
||
Kormas
|
119.10
|
7.84
|
||
Total
|
120.07
|
7.54
|
Above
table reveals the mean score of Sillekyatha, Dombidas and Korma is 120.25,
120.85 and 119.10. The total mean score is 120.07 respectively. The high mean
score of Sillekyatha it indicates the fact that the Sillekyatha and Dombidas
nomads are having good Mental health than the Korma. The obtained F-value is 1.39.
It is not significant. Therefore, the hypothesis is rejected.
These
people don’t have proper food to eat, clothes to wear and shelter to protect
them from the different weathers. As a result they mentally and physical suffer
due to starvation, lack of hospital facilities, because they are suffering from
mental health problems.
Graph No. 1 shows the graph of
mental health.
Table: 2
Mean score of mental health in gender. (N=300)
Mental health
|
Gender
|
N
|
Mean
|
SD
|
t-value
|
Male
|
149
|
21.44
|
2.45
|
*2.20
|
|
Female
|
151
|
20.90
|
2.03
|
*Significant at .005 level.
The
above table reveals the mean score of mental health among the gender. The mean
male score is 21.44 and the female mean score is 20.90. The mean score of
mental health is found in both the groups, but it is more among female. It is
significant. Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.
The reason for mental health high among females is due to understanding of new world. Even the husbands drink and bet up their wife’s. Up bring of children and trying to see that everyone in the family gets one or two meal a day. They have no impact all these things
Graph No. 2 shows the graph of
mental health.
Table: 3.
mean score of mental health of fortune tellers, Cattle man and Basketry and
results of ANOVA. (N=300).
Mental
health
|
Sub groups
|
Mean
|
SD
|
F-value
|
Fortune teller
|
22.78
|
1.85
|
*6.75
|
|
Cattle man
|
22.44
|
2.61
|
||
Basketry
|
21.56
|
2.71
|
||
Total
|
22.26
|
2.46
|
*Significant at .001 level.
A
significant difference was observed among the three sub groups in their mean
mental health score. The F-value is 6.75 which were found to be highly
significant. The mean score of fortune teller is 22.78, the cattle man mean
score is 22.44 and the basketry mean score is 21.56. The total mean score is
22.26 respectively. The high level of mental health is found in the three sub
groups, but the fortune tellers have more mental health than the other two
groups. It is significant at .001 level. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted.
The
reason for these people to have stress is that they travel from place to place
in order to sell they goods and earn for they livelihood. But their good are
bought by people for low cost than the actual cost of the product as results
they people face a lot of problems.
Graph No.3 shows the graph of
mental health.
Table: 4.
Mean score of mental health among age groups of Sillekyatha, Dombidas and
Kormas and the results of ANOVA. (N=300).
Mental health
|
Age group
|
N
|
Mean
|
SD
|
F-value
|
10-20
|
42
|
121.38
|
7.13
|
.672
|
|
21-30
|
128
|
119.51
|
7.37
|
||
31-40
|
84
|
120.14
|
8.16
|
||
40 & above
|
46
|
120.28
|
7.26
|
||
Total
|
300
|
120.07
|
7.54
|
A
significant difference was observed among the above age group in their mean
mental health score. Where the F-value is .672 it is found not to be
significant. The mean score of the age group are 121.38, 119.51, 120.14 and
120.28. The total mean score of the age group is 120.07 respectively. The
mental health is not all that high among the three groups. There is no
significant. Therefore the hypothesis is rejected.
Graph No. 4. Shows the graph of the
mental health.
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 good mental health,
depression, anxiety and stress in different communities, age groups and gender
according to the results obtained.
1. There
is significant difference in mental health, depression, anxiety and stress
among Nomads.
2. There
are significant differences in differences in mental health, depression,
anxiety and stress in different communities.
3. There
are significant differences in mental health, depression, anxiety and stress
among gender.
4. There
are significant differences in mental health, depression, anxiety and stress in
different occupation.
5. There
is a significant difference in mental health, depression, anxiety and stress in
different age groups.
6. There
is a significant difference in mental health, depression, anxiety and stress in
Income, family and marital status.
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