Ramesh Sahani | Panjab University (original) (raw)
Papers by Ramesh Sahani
Journal of Craniofacial Surgery
Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India
Customary village councils are pre-democratic informal councils found in almost every tribal vill... more Customary village councils are pre-democratic informal councils found in almost every tribal village in India. Praja is one such customary village council, yet unique in its own terms and is found in villages of Pangi tehsil of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. It owes its uniqueness to its geographical conditions. This article discusses about the Praja and the role it plays in the lives of the Pangwala. Praja is a social organisation which works in a close relation with the other units of the Pangwala society. Pangi’s rough geographical conditions like rugged topography and harsh climate, and lack of contact with other areas in earlier times led to formation of Praja, whose function was to deal with socio-cultural, developmental and legal matters. However, with time it became quasi-judicial in nature. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it is an apolitical organisation. Though changes have been observed in Praja’ s role, it is still the supreme body responsible for social soli...
Anthropological Review
The indigenous islanders of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are representing the earliest form of dev... more The indigenous islanders of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are representing the earliest form of developmental stage, their nutritional assessment and anthropometric comparison with contemporary populations are the main objective of the present paper. In this study we present a cross sectional analysis of anthropometric data of 2010 individuals of 19 different groups. The data were collected by the trained anthropologists of Anthropological Survey of India, following standard techniques and ethical guidelines. It was found that the Indigenous Islanders have small body size as compared to immigrants and counterparts. The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency (CED) was found highest among the mainlanders. Highest prevalence of overweight was found among Great Andamanese (18.2%), followed by Onge (7.4%). Individuals below 21 years of age were not found to be overweight or obese. On the other side, 16.7% of individual of age 41+ of local born were found to be overweight (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg...
There are seventy five groups who have been given the status of particularly vulnerable tribal gr... more There are seventy five groups who have been given the status of particularly vulnerable tribal groups and have little access to resource besides low rate of literacy, small population, and some of the groups are at the verge of extinction. They are distributed in various ecological zones beyond the state boundaries with immense variation in subsistence pattern and worldviews. Lots of problem are faced by them and in most of the areas they are unable to cope the situations. In this paper attempt is made to explore the major problems and the factors responsible for their present conditions along with suggestions to improve their status. Keywords: Particularly vulnerable tribal groups; development; health; nutrition; literacy; geographical distribution.
The Jarawas are one of the hunting-gathering Negrito tribes of Andaman Islands,who very recently ... more The Jarawas are one of the hunting-gathering Negrito tribes of Andaman Islands,who very recently come into contact . Information related to Nutritional and Health status of thistribe is very scanty; here an attempt is made to record the nutritional and health status of this Tribe with minimum changes in their life-styles due to outside influence. So that future changes may be judged keeping this study as a base line data. The findings show that Jarawas have lower BMI value than some of the other Negritos. The food intake and resources availability of the Jarawa territory do not correspond with the low BMI, so, an attempt is also made to interpret the low BMI of this tribe.
Human reproduction (Oxford, England), 1990
The evaluation of the morphology of human spermatozoa varies widely between and sometimes even wi... more The evaluation of the morphology of human spermatozoa varies widely between and sometimes even within laboratories. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the method that has been developed in our laboratory and which resulted in the use of stricter criteria for the evaluation of sperm morphology is a practical, reliable and repeatable method and to establish the within and between observer variations. The criteria used for a 'normal' spermatozoon are based on the appearance of spermatozoa found in the mucus of the upper endocervical canal. The results of the morphological evaluations of 26 samples by four observers were statistically analysed by various methods. The method of Barnett showed a high degree of relative accuracy between observers with error variances of between 2.89 and 19.67 as well as high Spearman rank correlation coefficients of between 0.8675 and 0.6537 (P less than 0.0003). The Spearman correlation coefficient for 15 duplicate evaluations by o...
HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology, 2013
The aim of this study is to examine the impact of forced settlement among the foraging Onges, whi... more The aim of this study is to examine the impact of forced settlement among the foraging Onges, which induced them to change their subsistence from full time foragers to settled consumer. Anthropometric study along with dietary investigation was considered before and afterwards they were forcibly settled. The anthropometric variables and indices show gradual increase among the Onges males but not so much in females. High prevalence of overweight and obesity is also reported. Comparison with other Andaman Islanders indicates that the group which was under the developmental schemes (forced to settle), is showing more mean values of anthropometric variables with prevalence of overweight and obesity than the group, which was not under the influence of developmental programme. Their dietary pattern and physical activity changed to a great extent. The protein content of the diets reduced significantly and the fat along with carbohydrates increased to a substantial amount. The contribution of protein to calories has been reduced substantially and now it is only around 10%, whereas in the past it was above 30%. Caloric intakes increased more than two times, while the physical activity level reduced to about half time. Decreased mobility and altered food habits are the probable reason for the gradual increase of body dimensions and prevalent overweight and obesity, which are the outcomes of forced settlement.
Journal of Craniofacial Surgery
Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India
Customary village councils are pre-democratic informal councils found in almost every tribal vill... more Customary village councils are pre-democratic informal councils found in almost every tribal village in India. Praja is one such customary village council, yet unique in its own terms and is found in villages of Pangi tehsil of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. It owes its uniqueness to its geographical conditions. This article discusses about the Praja and the role it plays in the lives of the Pangwala. Praja is a social organisation which works in a close relation with the other units of the Pangwala society. Pangi’s rough geographical conditions like rugged topography and harsh climate, and lack of contact with other areas in earlier times led to formation of Praja, whose function was to deal with socio-cultural, developmental and legal matters. However, with time it became quasi-judicial in nature. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it is an apolitical organisation. Though changes have been observed in Praja’ s role, it is still the supreme body responsible for social soli...
Anthropological Review
The indigenous islanders of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are representing the earliest form of dev... more The indigenous islanders of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are representing the earliest form of developmental stage, their nutritional assessment and anthropometric comparison with contemporary populations are the main objective of the present paper. In this study we present a cross sectional analysis of anthropometric data of 2010 individuals of 19 different groups. The data were collected by the trained anthropologists of Anthropological Survey of India, following standard techniques and ethical guidelines. It was found that the Indigenous Islanders have small body size as compared to immigrants and counterparts. The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency (CED) was found highest among the mainlanders. Highest prevalence of overweight was found among Great Andamanese (18.2%), followed by Onge (7.4%). Individuals below 21 years of age were not found to be overweight or obese. On the other side, 16.7% of individual of age 41+ of local born were found to be overweight (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg...
There are seventy five groups who have been given the status of particularly vulnerable tribal gr... more There are seventy five groups who have been given the status of particularly vulnerable tribal groups and have little access to resource besides low rate of literacy, small population, and some of the groups are at the verge of extinction. They are distributed in various ecological zones beyond the state boundaries with immense variation in subsistence pattern and worldviews. Lots of problem are faced by them and in most of the areas they are unable to cope the situations. In this paper attempt is made to explore the major problems and the factors responsible for their present conditions along with suggestions to improve their status. Keywords: Particularly vulnerable tribal groups; development; health; nutrition; literacy; geographical distribution.
The Jarawas are one of the hunting-gathering Negrito tribes of Andaman Islands,who very recently ... more The Jarawas are one of the hunting-gathering Negrito tribes of Andaman Islands,who very recently come into contact . Information related to Nutritional and Health status of thistribe is very scanty; here an attempt is made to record the nutritional and health status of this Tribe with minimum changes in their life-styles due to outside influence. So that future changes may be judged keeping this study as a base line data. The findings show that Jarawas have lower BMI value than some of the other Negritos. The food intake and resources availability of the Jarawa territory do not correspond with the low BMI, so, an attempt is also made to interpret the low BMI of this tribe.
Human reproduction (Oxford, England), 1990
The evaluation of the morphology of human spermatozoa varies widely between and sometimes even wi... more The evaluation of the morphology of human spermatozoa varies widely between and sometimes even within laboratories. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the method that has been developed in our laboratory and which resulted in the use of stricter criteria for the evaluation of sperm morphology is a practical, reliable and repeatable method and to establish the within and between observer variations. The criteria used for a 'normal' spermatozoon are based on the appearance of spermatozoa found in the mucus of the upper endocervical canal. The results of the morphological evaluations of 26 samples by four observers were statistically analysed by various methods. The method of Barnett showed a high degree of relative accuracy between observers with error variances of between 2.89 and 19.67 as well as high Spearman rank correlation coefficients of between 0.8675 and 0.6537 (P less than 0.0003). The Spearman correlation coefficient for 15 duplicate evaluations by o...
HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology, 2013
The aim of this study is to examine the impact of forced settlement among the foraging Onges, whi... more The aim of this study is to examine the impact of forced settlement among the foraging Onges, which induced them to change their subsistence from full time foragers to settled consumer. Anthropometric study along with dietary investigation was considered before and afterwards they were forcibly settled. The anthropometric variables and indices show gradual increase among the Onges males but not so much in females. High prevalence of overweight and obesity is also reported. Comparison with other Andaman Islanders indicates that the group which was under the developmental schemes (forced to settle), is showing more mean values of anthropometric variables with prevalence of overweight and obesity than the group, which was not under the influence of developmental programme. Their dietary pattern and physical activity changed to a great extent. The protein content of the diets reduced significantly and the fat along with carbohydrates increased to a substantial amount. The contribution of protein to calories has been reduced substantially and now it is only around 10%, whereas in the past it was above 30%. Caloric intakes increased more than two times, while the physical activity level reduced to about half time. Decreased mobility and altered food habits are the probable reason for the gradual increase of body dimensions and prevalent overweight and obesity, which are the outcomes of forced settlement.