Define a typical subsistence farm family or poor urban family in your country. Include family size and composition, diet, education, and access to health care.
A typical rural Burmese household is considerably large and usually consist of 3 generations of a family. That can include grandparents, aunts and uncles, and relatives as distant as 7th cousins. Burmese children do not move out until marriage; most even continue to live with their parents after marriage. Because of this long practiced tradition, the eldest in the household-the parents or grandparents- hold almost all of the decision making power in the family.
Education is highly respected in Burma but the quality is
very low because it strongly centered on memorization and recitation. Education is
only enforced for 5 years and after that a great majority dropout. Schools are
poorly equipped and materials are often outdated. Although primary education in
Burma is free, families hesitate to send their children to school because of
high school fees that amount to about 100 US dollars. This greatly affects poor
rural families because they not only have to pay for school fees but also
transportation fees. There are also other discrimination factors that affect
school attendance such as ethnic conflicts and gender inequality.
The majority of Burmese people live in rural areas, which means access to healthcare and hospitals is very limited. For that reason, Burmese families greatly depend on home remedies as their source of treatment. Health care is also very limited because the government roughly spends about 2% of its GDP on health care and doctors are in very short supply.
A Burmese Rural Family:
- 3 generation household
- Each member has 5 years or less of education
- Mothers and daughters may have little to no education
- Diet consists of mainly rice
- limited access to health care (depend on home remedies)
- Bamboo houses with no running water or electricity
What are your thoughts about the information you are finding? Does this information bring up any additional questions for you?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading this information I was really surprised and disturbed with how underdeveloped Burma is. Considering how big of an income they obtain through their agricultural exports, I assumed Burma would be a little bit more stable and developed. I was also really surprised with the low literacy rate and gender discrimination within the education system. The question that I really wanted to understand was, "where is the money being spent is only about 2% is spent on health care?"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading this information I was really surprised and disturbed with how underdeveloped Burma is. Considering how big of an income they obtain through their agricultural exports, I assumed Burma would be a little bit more stable and developed. I was also really surprised with the low literacy rate and gender discrimination within the education system. The question that I really wanted to understand was, "where is the money being spent is only about 2% is spent on health care?"
ReplyDeleteGender inequality and education are key factors all over the world! It seems so simple to us - educate everyone and treat everyone equal and half your problems will be solved.
ReplyDelete