A farming village community of 512 completed one year of periodic deworming with a single 10 mg/kg oral dose of pyrantel every 3 months. Stool examination by Kato’s thick smear method showed that the prevalence of roundworm infection (ascariasis) in the community decreased from 76% to 0%, and that of hookworm infection (ancylostomiasis) from 60% to 0%. During the same period the mean hemoglobin increased by 2.3 +/- 0.1 g/dl and the mean body mass index (BMI) increased by 0.90 +/- 0.04(P 0.01 for both) the drug was tolerated very well as side effects occurred following only 6% of doses (130/2048), and only 1% of these required symptomatic treatment. Quarterly deworming with a single dose of pyrantel is an effective and acceptable method of controlling roundworm and hookworm infections in farming village community having a high prevalence of these worms, and it helps improve the general health of the population to significant degree.

The present study was carried out in Ajmer City of Rajasthan State, India. The incidence of low birth weight was found to be 39.94% in the study. The height, weight, head circumference and chest circumference of normal weight babies was significantly higher that low birth weight babies at every stage of the growth. Initial gain in above antropometric measurements was higher in low birth weight babies that normal weight babies but at the end of the study the initial deficit in their anthropometric measurements still persisted.

Fertility patterns of a community depend upon several factors. Strict enforcement of legislation is amongst its important determinants. The Government proposes to enact a deterrent law, which will replace the loophole – ridden Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1978. In India, there exists a long established custom to enter into effective marriage several years after marriage. This is called ‘gauna’. Studying the various marriage cohorts by decades, the present communication comments on the age at marriage, age at gauna and age at first childbirth amongst 843 rural women in Delhi. The study shows that over the last six decades, there has been a gradual rise of age at marriage from 10.5 years to 16.5 years. However, this slope is less steep with age at gauna and almost non- existent for age at first childbirth. This in turn has narrowed the gap between age at gauna and age at first childbirth. Age at first childbirth has remained more or less constant at 19-20 years. This fining, if corroborated elsewhere also, may be of great significance and raise questions on the validity of the current strategy of increasing marriage age to 18 years in order to reduce fertility.

In a study of 777 mothers delivering at Dufferin Hospital, Lucknow, 195 (25.1 %) mothers were in O risk group, 321 (41.3%) in 1-3 risk group, 199(25.6%) in 4-6 risk group and 62 (7.9 %) in risk group 7 +. On the other hand, caesarean section increased from 3(1.5 %) in ‘O’ risk mothers to 25 (40.4%) in 7 + risk score mothers. The incidence of low birth weight was lowest (5/ 1000 births) when risk score was 0 and highest (432.8 / 1000 births) when risk score was 7 +. Out of a total of 777 mothers, 222 (28.5%) had postnatal complications. In ‘O’ risk group, out of 195 mothers only 24 (12.3 %) had postnatal complications, while 37 (59.7 %) out of 62 had complications in 7 + group. The maternal mortality rate was 1.3 / 1000 live births. Perinatal mortality rate was 61.6 /1000 total births and neonatal mortality rate was 47.7/1000 live births.