India's Untouchables

In the rural village of Jawalke, India a health project by the name of the Comprehensive Rural Health Project is beginning to change the face of India's caste systems. Before the program women of the untouchable caste were not allowed shoes or even to touch the community water pump. Now they are delivering babies and treating village health problems. The project takes lower caste women and educates them on common rural health problems and sanitation. In turn the women alleviate much of the suffering that comes with poverty for members of the village. It was not a simple thing to do to gain these lower caste women entrance into the homes of the sick, but after a few medical success the village began to accept them.
With the introduction of these village health workers much of the infant mortality and leprosy that was common in the village has been done away with. One worker stated that she has delivered 551 babies and has yet to lose a single mother or child. Now almost all the village children receive vaccinations. These women who have received little to no education, hold no medical degree of any kind, and were as of a few years ago considered untouchable are slowly transforming rural India into a place of acceptance and health. These small steps have and continue to allow rural Indian culture to evolve into one that prides itself on it's preservation of the human rights that it used to deny to the poor, destitute, female, young, and/ or uneducated members of it's society.

Information obtained from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/community-doctors/rosenberg-text/1 and http://www.jamkhed.org/impact.shtml.

Brazilian Fertility Rates

As of recently something odd has been happening to the Brazilian fertility rate - it has been dropping, and it has been dropping fast. The national fertility rate currently hovers around 1.9. This is even lower than the two children per woman fertility rate of the United States. When looking at this situation without a familiarity of the Brazilian culture you would probably see nothing odd about a drop in fertility rates. After all, its happening to all evolving nations right? Well yes, but not like this.
Brazil is a country that takes its religion seriously. That religion is Catholicism. So how might you ask, is a country where abortion is illegal, Catholicism reigns supreme, and no federal birth control polices have ever been enforced dropping its fertility rate faster than flies? The short answer is, they have embraced the concept of "girl power". Brazil's rapid industrialization has led to a serious attitude change by Brazilian women. By providing them with access to education, contraceptive methods, and new female stereotypes of strong career women Brazilian society has changed the face of it's women forever. The women that used to have have six to eight children are now educating early, reproducing late, and ultimately stopping altogether after the first or second child. They are pursuing careers and becoming equals with their male counterparts. What took other countries a century and a handful of federal birth control policies Brazil has done in twenty five years with rapid industrialization, strong soap opera women, and an unregulated pharmaceutical market.  


Information obtained from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/gorney-text and http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/brazil-family-planning-birth-rate-women-health.