Attitude Towards Impotence And Barren among the Baiga Males of Chhattisgarh, India

Several conceptions and misconceptions prevail in human society about sexual impotency. In different human societies in different human cultures, opinions and criteria regarding impotence vary. Such opinions and criteria become perceptions in that particular society. Such perceptions were also traced in the Baiga community, which are presented in this paper. Objectives of the study are to explore notions about impotence and barren among the Baiga males of Chhattisgarh, India. The universe of our sample is 400 married Baiga males belonging to age 18-49 years. The Baiga tribe is one of seven Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of Chhattisgarh state of India. In the present study multi-stage random sampling method were followed. Structured interview schedules, focused group discussions and non-participant observation were used for collection and cross validation of data. According to the findings 33.5% respondents regard those males impotent who in the course of his youthful age could not make his wife pregnant. 30% respondents have the conviction that witchcraft and sorcery are the main causes of suffering from impotency. Perception regarding impotence among the Baiga males is found to be very placid and positive influenced by their age with value of χ2 = 1.153 and value of p is 0.020 at 5% level of significance. More than of half of them (50.8%) agreed that if any woman was unable to conceive, she was castigated as “barren”. Perception about barrenness among the Baiga males is found to be moderate and positively depended on their educational status, with associated value of χ2 = 30.32 and value of p is 0.016 at 5% level of significance. From the observation of multi-nomial logistic regression test, the finding was: in order to, all the above causes were found responsible for the barrenness of any women, which were relative to result as deities, breach of taboos and magic and witchcraft held responsible for barrenness at value of β for predictor's age at marriage of the respondents, i.e., < 18 years had been found to be -1.069 with associated value of p is 0.048 at 5% level of significance. From the extant study one thing that came to light was that those men who are younger in age hold such forces less responsible than their elderly counterparts who happen to be more credulous, even superstitions. The fact also emerged through the study that with the rise in educational status and income, the general attitude of the male Baiga towards barrenness of women have become realistic and scientific.