Overlooked Realities: Reimagining "Home" and "House" Among Women Domestic Workers in India.

Domestic workers (DWs) are integral to the daily lives of a significant portion of India's urban population, with an estimated 3.9 million individuals employed in domestic roles in urban areas, mostly women. This article explores the perceptions of home, house, and safe spaces among migrant women DWs in Delhi. Through in-depth interviews, it delves into their lived experiences as both breadwinners and survivors of domestic violence, revealing that (a) house and home are differently conceptualized by these workers; (b) their homes are perceived as warzones, reinforcing patriarchy through incidents of domestic violence and gendered subordination; and (c) women DWs navigate the complexities of conflicting identities as breadwinners and survivors within unequal gendered relationships.

Understanding depression in older Indians using diathesis-stress framework: The role of neighborhood safety and physical and functional health.

OBJECTIVES: The interplay between an individual's vulnerability and related stressors, effectively termed as diathesis, is an important contributor towards depressive symptoms. Utilizing the diathesis-stress model, the present study examines the role of perceived neighborhood safety along with specific indicators of health such as activities of daily living (ADL) and self-rated health (SRH), and their associations with depressive symptoms among older Indian adults. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study has been conducted. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India wave 1 that was collected during 2017-18. The present study is conducted on respondents aged 60 years and above and the sample included 31,464 older adults. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Short Form Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI-SF). RESULTS: In this study, approximately 14.3% of the older participants reported perceiving their neighborhood as unsafe. A total of 23.77% and 24.21% of older adults reported at least one difficulty in ADL and poor SRH, respectively. Older adults who had perceived their neighborhood as unsafe had higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms [AOR: 1.758, CI: 1.497-2.066] than those with the perception of a safe neighborhood. Those with a perceived unsafe neighborhood and low ADL functioning had approximately 3.3 times higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms [AOR: 3.298, CI: 2.553-4.261] than those with a safe perceived neighborhood and high ADL functioning. Further, older adults with unsafe perceived neighborhood, low ADL functioning and poor SRH had much greater odds of reporting depressive symptoms [AOR: 7.725, CI: 5.443-10.960] than those with a safe perceived neighborhood, high ADL functioning and good SRH. Additionally, depressive symptoms were pronounced among older women and those who resided in rural areas with unsafe perceived neighborhood, low ADL functioning and poor SRH than their male peers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that older women and rural-dwelling older adults are more prone to have higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than their male and urban-dwelling peers, especially when they have an unsafe neighborhood and poor functional and physical health, and thus, they should be given focused care and attention by healthcare practitioners.

Examining the relationship between risky sexual behavior and suicidal thoughts among unmarried adolescents in India.

Addressing the problem of suicidal thoughts in adolescents requires understanding the associated risk factors. Multiple studies have shown that risky sexual behavior affected the adolescents' psychological health that leads to their suicidal thoughts, behaviors and attempts. This study aimed to identify the association between various risky sexual behaviours and suicidal thoughts among unmarried adolescents in India. We used data collected from 4221 unmarried adolescent boys and 5987 unmarried adolescent girls aged 10-19 years, from the two rounds of the Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults (UDAYA) survey. Descriptive analysis was done to observe changes in the selected variables from wave-1 to wave-2. Random effect regression analysis was used to estimate the association of suicidal thoughts among unmarried adolescents with their risky sexual behaviours. The percentage of adolescent boys having suicidal thoughts increased from 1.35% in wave 1 to 2.19% in wave 2. Among adolescent girls, the percentage increased from 2.92% in wave 1 to 5.05% in wave 2. A proportion of 3.26% adolescent boys had more than one sexual partner during wave 1 whereas in wave 2, it rose to 8.71%, while in case of adolescent girls, the estimates only increased from 0.26% at wave 1 to 0.78% at wave 2. Nearly 4.55% boys and 1.37% girls had early sexual debut. Almost five percentage boys were sexually active at wave 1 whereas in wave 2, it rose to 13.56%, while among adolescent girls, the estimates decreased from 1.54% at wave 1 to 1.51% at wave 2. Contraceptive use increased over time among both adolescent boy and girls. Also, a large proportion of adolescent boys reported watching pornography (27.08% at waive 1 and 49.39% at wave 2) compared to adolescent girls (4.46% at wave 1 and 13.10% at wave 2). Adolescents who had more than one sexual partner [Coef: 0.04; p < 0.001], exposed to early sexual debut [Coef; 0.019; p < 0.01], sexually active [Coef: 0.058; p < 0.001] and reported watching pornography [Coef: 0.017; p < 0.001] were more likely to have suicidal thoughts. Adolescent boys and girls with risky sexual behaviors are likely to be at a higher risk of suicidal ideation, and thus, they should be treated with special care and attention by local healthcare practitioners.

Cross-sectional associations of physical frailty with fall, multiple falls and fall-injury among older Indian adults: Findings from LASI, 2018.

BACKGROUND: Although there has been a range of studies that focused on physical frailty and associated fall outcomes within developed countries, similar studies from developing countries have been limited. This study aimed to examine the relationship between physical frailty and the prevalence of falls, multiple falls and fall-related injuries among the ageing population within the Indian context. METHODS: Individual-level data from the first wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) with 28,285 older adults aged 60 years and above (male 48.9%) was used for this study. Physical frailty was assessed through the physical frailty phenotype adapted from Fried's criteria. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to examine the association of frailty status with falls, multiple falls, and fall-related injuries among Indian older adults. RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty was found to be 29.94% within the sample and frail older adults had a higher prevalence of falls (15.43% vs 11.85%), multiple falls (7.73% vs 5.25%), and fall related injuries (6.68% vs 5.29%). The odds of falling among frail older adults were significantly higher in reference to the odds of falling among non-frail older adults [aOR: 1.24; CI: 1.09-1.41]. Similarly, the odds of multiple falls among frail older adults were significantly higher in reference to the odds of multiple falls among non-frail older adults [aOR: 1.24; CI: 1.05-1.48]. Moreover, the odds of fall-related injury among frail older adults were significantly higher in reference to the odds of fall-related injury among non-frail older adults [aOR: 1.21; CI: 1.01-1.45]. Falls, multiple falls and fall-related injuries were found to be significantly associated with employment and poor self-rated health, whereas, females and lone living older adults had a significantly higher likelihood of suffering from falls and multiple falls. CONCLUSION: Older individuals with physical frailty were found to be at increased risk of falls, multiple falls and fall-related injuries in India. The findings of our study also have important clinical implications in the measures undertaken to reduce falls and enable future healthcare practitioners and policymakers to factor in the key determinant of physical frailty.