3.3 EL CASO PARTICULAR EN ESPAÑA
4.1.3 Gestión de instalaciones
In return, the villagers often help and participate well in the activities organised by the monks, for instance, constructing a new building within the temple compound. However, the monks are not actively involved in the community health activities and programmes, mainly because they are not encouraged by the community health workers.
Religion, Buddhism in particular, and religious ceremonies are important aspects of village life in Ban Dee. Poor villagers benefit from religious ceremonies, particularly in terms of food. In the researcher's opinion, the monks are supportive and could contribute to health promotion programmes, since they are respected and their advice is followed by the village people.
THE ECONOMY OF THE VILLAGE
Paid employment allows people to acquire income, and the income of people determines their purchasing power. The economic situation of the villagers directly influences food consumption because what cannot be produced or obtained naturally must be bought. As in most rural villages, the economic situation of people in Ban Dee is dependent on agriculture. According to the same household survey mentioned earlier [see p 87] , of the 540 households, 337 households were farmers, 1 5 3 households worked as hired labourers [mostly field labourers] , and 5 0 households were traders. The villagers' level of income stated in the same survey is shown in Table 6. 1 .
The villagers who own land are able to grow crops all year round because of the water supply from the large dam, located 7 km from the village, and the long rainy season. The main agricultural products are rice, garlic, mung beans, soya beans, peanuts, green chilli, cucumbers and tobacco. Plate 6.2 shows the rice fields nearby the village. While the rice grows farmers go to the fields periodically to check that the water level is sufficient for growth and also to do some weeding and fertilising. In the meantime, they grow cucumbers, mung beans, peanuts and tobacco in their vegetable gardens or on the low hills near the village. When the rice harvesting time is over, people grow soya beans, garlic or green chilli in the paddy fields. However, the price of crops is not stable as it mostly depends on middle-men buyers. For instance, the price of garlic this year is only 6-8 baht per kg, whereas it was 1 5 baht during the previous year. Many villagers, who borrowed substantial amounts of money to invest in their crops, were not able to pay back their debt.
Table 6. 1 : The villager's annual income in Ban Dee ( 1988) i n baht [1 baht = US$ 24-26 or NZ$ 14-16, 1988 exchange rate]
Number of households
200
1 60
1 00
80
Level of income (baht/year) less than
6,000
6,000- 1 0, 000
1 0,000-20,000
more than
20,000
As for those who have no land, they are hired by farmers who own land. According to them, a variety of jobs are available all year. The wages vary from
35-70
baht per day depending on the type of job. Most jobs are agricultural, such as ploughing, rice planting, rice and bean harvesting and threshing, preparing beds for young plants, and, picking green chillis and ground nuts. For certain kinds of jobs such as rice harvesting and threshing, it is accepted that a man is able to do more work than a woman, therefore the wage for a man is usually5 - 1 0
baht higher than that for a woman. For casual jobs such as shelling peanuts and breaking up garlic bulbs, the pay is low. A worker earns only10- 1 5
baht for the entire day's work.Apart from working as field labourers, some male villagers, mostly from landless families, work for daily wages as construction labourers in town. They are picked up early in the morning and return home in the evening. They earn about
60-80
baht for an eight-hour working day. As for women, particularly mothers of young children, some earn money from doing embroidery while tending their babies for which they are paid only about1 0- 1 5
baht a day.With regard to family expenses, the villagers, particularly the poor, rarely spend money on luxuries as their way of life is simple and their living facilities are modest. New clothes are bought only once or twice a year. Schoolchildren wear uniforms for all public occasions since they often have no other new clothes. The landless families spend a considerable amount of their income on rice. Approximately
1 5-20
baht per day is considered a sufficient amount to buy food for a small family. This amount of money, however, is not sufficient to buy high-cost foods such as meat and eggs regularly.Most people in Ban Dee are employed and there is no extreme poverty in the village. Even though many families have no land for cultivating, they are able to work as hired labourers. However, the economic situation of the villagers is influenced significantly by external factors such as middle-man buyers. Therefore, poor families do not always earn enough to cover their living expenses, including food expenses. This may lead to malnutrition problems, particularly in mothers and young children, a point which is relevant to the study.
EDUCATION
To promote their health and prevent themselves from being ill, people should be knowledgeable about health and illness. To be able to seek such information and knowledge, people need to be literate. In addition, the availability and accessibility of such information and knowledge are important. In Ban Dee most of the people under 55 years of age, are literate as they have at least 4 years of formal education. Some of those who are over 55 years learned to read and write from the inforn1al education provided by the government. Old male v:illagers, who had spent some time as ordained monks, are also literate. Nowadays, village children receive their primary education at Ban Dee primary school. The school also offers a preschool class for 5- year-olds but this is not compulsory. At present, there are about 200 schoolchildren
and
1 2
teachers in this school.After finishing compulsory schooling, children whose families are able to support them, study further in the secondary school either in the school situated in Mae Tang district, or in one of several secondary schools in the main town . The rest stay at home, either working with their parents in the fields or as hired labourers. However, those who obtain higher education tend to get jobs in town or in other provinces. Only a few of them still live in the village and work as government officers, mostly schoolteachers in the district. Despite their higher education and important job positions none of these people took on a leadership position within the village. The reasons given for their lack of involvement related mainly to the demands of their jobs and lack of time for village affairs.
After finishing school few people have opportunities to read and write since they often cannot afford to buy newspapers or magazines. Although there is a small public reading place which was built 3 years previously, it is always closed. According to
the headman and some old villagers, when it was newly opened, there were many books, magazines and newspapers. Unfortunately, most items borrowed were not returned and the budget for setting up the library has run out. There are no funds to buy replacements. The only place where a daily newspaper is available is the big food shop, but only a few villagers have the chance to read it. In the researcher's experience, the broadcasting chamber which works through loudspeakers located around the village, has been used only for announcing village meetings or official information, and not for disseminating educational programmes. Further, health information in written form such as leaflets or brochures, is seldom available at the subdistrict health centre or the district hospital.
Despite being literate most people in Ban Dee neither have time to read nor are they encouraged to read. Information and knowledge concerning health and illness are not accessible or available to the villagers either on an individual level or on a group level via mass media educational programmes. An important means of health education and promotion, through printed media, is largely unavailable within the village, limiting the effectiveness of national and regional programmes that would otherwise impact on the health of the people. This is an important aspect of this study.
H OUSING, FAMILY AND S OCIAL RELATIONS
Housing and physical environment are important to the health of people. Good ventilation and sanitary conditions enable people to have good health. Electricity helps facilitate living conditions. Family structure, kinship systems and social relations are cultural systems which influence ways of life and behaviours of the people.
H o u s i n g
In Ban Dee, as i n most villages i n the North, a group of 2-5 houses whose owners are either relatives by blood or by marriage [mostly through the wives] are often built within the same compound without partitioning fences, except for houses which are situated on the road sides.
Based on the economic status of the owners, village houses can be classified into two types. The houses of the well-to-do are made of teakwood or wood and/or brick with a tile roof (Plate 6.3). The houses are either one-storey and elevated above the ground