Prevalence of orphans in Dharwad Taluka, Karanataka

Prevalence study was conducted in Dharwad Taluka of Karnataka state in the year 2016–18. Prevalence included rural area, urban area as well as institutionalized orphan children. Out of 109 villages in Dharwad 5 villages were selected in rural area. In the urban area, Dharwad city was considered and survey was conducted based on different localities covering four directions. Door to door survey was conducted to know the prevalence and supplementary information was collected through schools and Anganwadies. A self-structured questionnaire was used for the data collection. The results revealed that out of total 3504 children contacted in rural area 266 were found to be orphans. Thus 7.59 per cent of prevalence of orphans was found in rural area. Totally 1562 families/children were contacted in urban area of which 132 orphans were noted. In addition 62 orphans residing in private orphanages in Dharwad were also included in urban population of orphans. Hence in overall the prevalence of orphans in urban area was 11.95 per cent. On the whole the prevalence percentage of orphans in Dharwad Taluka was 8.97 per cent. The paternal orphans were found to be higher than maternal and double orphans.