Fields in Motion, Fields of Friction: Tales of Betrayal and Promise from Kangra District, India

Over a period of five decades, Kangra District, located in the mountainous northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, has been continually si(gh)ted within different development imaginaries that have evolved at particular configurations of scale and time and been given shape within a succession of international bilateral projects. These development flows into the region have in turn fostered a plethora of competing institutions and practices, contributing their own sometimes divergent flows within an inherently mobile and “developmentalizing” terrain. While this dynamic and multi-textured terrain offers rich opportunities for partnerships forged across disparate sites, there is, I argue, a need to revisit “collaboration” as a key feminist tool for facilitating social justice and change. Widely lauded for its empowering, equalizing and transformative potential by feminist scholars, collaboration is also viewed prescriptively in terms of “success” and “failure.” Consequently, “strategies and solutions” are sought to negotiate its minefields and to resolve, often futilely, the friction that repeatedly erupts within them. In this paper, I suggest a re-viewing of friction as a valuable methodological frame within feminist collaborative research and praxis. In place of the prevalent emphasis on containing and resolving friction generated at border crossings, I contend that feminist-oriented “location work” that engages with friction and follows its routes through the fluid and fertile space of a “developmentalizing terrain” can provide promising avenues and detours for empowerment and social justice. Drawing on Tsing’s (2005) discussion of the creative role of friction across global connections, I reflect on some of the ways in which it played out as a creative source of production, interruption and mutation within two of my collaborative ventures in Kangra. In doing so, I demonstrate how an attention to the sometimes unanticipated and diversionary routes that are generated by friction within collaborative efforts, and the vistas of “betrayal” and promise that they reveal, offer valuable insights for encounters at the interface of feminist praxis, anthropology and development practice

High prevalence of malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency among schoolchildren of rural areas in Malaysia using a multi-school assessment approach

Childhood malnutrition is known as a public health concern globally. The present study aims to assess the anthropometry and blood biochemical status of rural primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. A total of 776 children (7-11 years old) from ten rural primary schools from five states were included in this study. Nutritional outcomes were assessed based on sex, age group and school categories among the children (median age: 9 years (P25:8, P75:10)). The overall prevalence of malnutrition was 53·4 %. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) was recorded at 20·6 and 39·8 % based on retinol and retinol-binding protein (RBP) levels, respectively. Anaemia, iron deficiency (ID), iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) and elevated inflammation were found at 14·9, 17·9, 9·1 and 11·5 %, respectively. Malnutrition, VAD, anaemia, ID, IDA and elevated inflammation were more prevalent among Orang Asli (OA) schoolchildren compared with Non-Orang Asli schoolchildren. Higher occurrences of VAD and anaemia were also found among children aged <10 years. Retinol, RBP, α-carotene, ferritin and haemoglobin levels were lower among undernourished children. Besides, overweight/obese children exhibited a higher level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that OA school children (adjusted OR (AOR): 6·1; 95 % CI 4·1, 9·0) and IDA (AOR: 3·6; 95 % CI 1·9, 6·6) were associated with stunting among this population. The present study revealed that malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia are prevalent among rural primary schoolchildren in Malaysia, especially those from OA schools and younger age children (<10 years). Hence, more appropriate and targeted measures are needed to improve the nutritional status of these children

Red palm olein-enriched biscuit supplementation lowers Ascaris lumbricoides reinfection at 6-month after anthelmintic treatment among schoolchildren with vitamin A deficiency (VAD)

Notwithstanding the global efforts made to control intestinal parasitic infections, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are still one of the most prevalent infections globally, especially in developing countries. A double-blinded, randomized controlled trial was conducted on 343 primary schoolchildren (8–12 years old) with vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in rural areas of Malaysia to investigate the effects of red palm olein (RPO)-enriched biscuits on STH reinfection rates and infection intensities. The effects of the RPO-enriched biscuits (experimental group, n = 153) and palm olein (PO)-enriched biscuits (control group, n = 190), were assessed at 3- and 6-month after the administration of complete triple-dose albendazole (one dose of 400 mg for three consecutive days). The overall STH infection rate at baseline was recorded at 65.6%. At 6-month, a significantly lower reinfection rate of A. lumbricoides was observed in the experimental group (35.3%) compared to the control group (60.0%) (P0.05). These findings suggest the potential beneficial effects of RPO-enriched biscuit supplementation on the reinfection of A. lumbricoides, which could be attributed to its high carotenoids content by enhancing host immune response and mucosal epithelium integrity. However, further studies are warranted to confirm whether RPO supplementation could result in similar parasite-specific beneficial effects in other community settings, as well as to explore the underlying mechanisms