The family context of ASHA and Anganwadi work in rural Rajasthan: Gender and labour in CHW programmes.

Across the literature on CHWs globally, the role of CHWs' families remains largely unexplored. This article focuses on ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in a town in rural Rajasthan, India. We interviewed all twenty ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in this town, and ten of their families; we also conducted participant observation in Anganwadi Centers, health centres, and family settings. ASHA and Anganwadi work was in high demand, despite being low paying, because of an overall lack of jobs for educated women. Every aspect of CHW work, from recruitment to selection to training to the number of hours spent on the job, was heavily determined by families. Women's mobility, income, and workload was tied up in family structures. ASHA and Anganwadi Work increased the mobility and autonomy of the women who held those jobs in significant ways. But mostly, women stayed in these extremely low paying jobs because they and their families hoped that one day they would become permanent jobs with salaries and benefits. By providing honourable work, and keeping the idea of permanent employment in view but always just out of reach, the ASHA and Anganwadi programmes both exploited and strengthened gendered inequalities in the rural Rajasthani labour market.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA-based molecular heterogeneity analysis of Salmonella enterica isolates from foods of animal origin.

AIM: This study aims to study the significance of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) typing in heterogeneity analysis of Salmonella serovars, isolated from foods of animal origin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Salmonella serovars isolated and identified from different foods of animal origin such as meat, milk, and egg by standard bacteriological methods. DNA isolated from all 10 isolates which are confirmed by biochemical and serotyping methods and then RAPD was performed using the primers OPB 10, primer 1290, NSC I, NSC II, and primer 3. Then, RAPD data were analyzed using the BioNumerics software, Belgium, Germany. RESULTS: RAPD polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using five primers, namely OPB 10, primer 1290, NSC I, NSC II, and primer 3, classified the 10 isolates into 9, 10, 10, 7, and 10 RAPD-PCR types with discriminating powers of 0.1987, 0.423, 0.50889, 0.1842, and 0.2582, respectively. The phylogram constructed with NSC I profile classified isolates based on geographical origin. Primer 1290, NSC II, and primer 3 produced some uniform bands in all isolates indicating their binding ability in conserved genomic region. This study revealed that RAPD profile can be best used for finding out the heterogeneity at molecular level of Salmonella isolates in combination with other molecular and phenotypic typing techniques. Thus, our results support earlier observation of its significance by different workers on different Salmonella serotypes. CONCLUSION: Repeatability of RAPD-PCR is insufficient to distinguish genetic differences among Salmonella serovars.