ISSN (Print): 0976-013X

ISSN (Online): 0976-0148

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12 No. 2 June 2021

Honorary Editor
Dr Amiya Kumar Mohapatra
E-mail: amiyaeco125@[Link]

Editorial Advisory Board

Dr Sanjay Kumar
Director, Centre for Study of Developing Societies,
29, Rajpur Road, New Delhi –110054
E-mail: director@[Link]

Dr P K Chaubey
Professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration,
Indraprastha Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi –110002
E-mail: pkchaubey@[Link]

Dr Surya Prakash Singh

Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology, IV Floor, Vishwakarma Bhavan,
Saheed Jeet Singh Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi – 110016
E-mail: [Link]@[Link]

Dr Nalin Bharti
Associate Professor, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology, Bihta, Patna -801106
E-mail: nalinbharti@[Link]

Dr. Saif Siddiqui

Assistant Professor, Centre for Management Studies,
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025
E-mail: drsaifsiddiqui@[Link]
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy (JMPP) is a biannual peer-reviewed journal published
in June and December every year by Management Development Research Foundation, New
Delhi (India).

JMPP seeks to create a body of knowledge around the interface of various functional areas of
Management and Public Policy. It is likely to serve as an independent forum for the academia,
industry, civil society and the State to carry forward a candid and objective discussion on
common issues having a bearing on economy, business, community, environment and the
quality of life of the people.

All the editorial positions are honorary/non-remunerative. Editor and Editorial Advisory Board
members are associated with this journal in individual capacities and their institutions have
no role in the publication of JMPP.

JMPP is indexed in EBSCO, ProQuest and Indian Citation Index

Editorial Queries: [Link]@[Link]

Copyright © Liberal Press 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission
of the Editor/Publisher.

Disclaimer:
The views expressed in the articles/reviews are those of the contributors and not necessarily
that of the Editorial Board or Management Development Research Foundation.

Articles/reviews are published in good faith and the contributors will be liable for any
copyright infringements.

Published online by Liberal Press, New Delhi.

2
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Content

Engaging Pedagogical Strategies for Students in

Teaching Sessions: A Suggestive Framework Blueprint
Sheela Bhargava 4-26

Personality as a Predictor of Usage of Wearable Fitness Trackers

Shweta Jha and Vandana Malviya 27-34

Revamped Thrust on Women’s Participation for their Entitlements

under NRHM: A Study of Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha
Bhabani Priyadarshini Mohanty and Smita Nayak 35-53

Sorting Responsible Business Practices in Fast Fashion:

A Case Study of Zara
Srirang K Jha and S. Veeramani 54-58

Conversations around Green Products

Barun S. Mitra, Charudutt Panigrahi, S Veeramani,
Umesh Rishi, V. Selvarajan, and Srirang K Jha 59-66

3
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2021, Pp. 4-26
ISSN 0976-0148 (Online) 0976-013X (Print)
DOI: [Link]

Engaging Pedagogical Strategies for Students in

Teaching Sessions: A Suggestive Framework Blueprint

Sheela Bhargava*

ABSTRACT
This study aims at understanding main reasons of disengagement in teaching session from
students’ perspective. It further examines what pedagogical methods and preparations can
contribute to higher student engagement in teaching session both from teachers’ and
students’ perspectives. The study was conducted through interpretative phenomenological
analysis to identify and analyze the experiences of the respondents. Primary data was
obtained via semi- structured interviews of participants from Delhi NCR, India. The results are
reflected in the form of superordinate themes that emerged through analyzing the responses
of participants. Based on exploratory details, some of the themes related to students’
disengagement were identified as insufficient interpersonal communication, lack of real-time
application, dearth of empathy and dubious personal behaviour of teacher. The findings also
define the Action Plan for teachers for enhancing student engagement in teaching session.

KEYWORDS: Student engagement/disengagement, Higher education, Pedagogical strategies,

interpretative phenomenological analysis,

*Associate Professor, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, New Delhi, India
E-mail: [Link]@[Link]
4
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

INTRODUCTION
The notion of student engagement has gained new insights in higher education sector in last
two decades. Student engagement is attracting more attention than student retention for
research studies nowadays (Tight, 2019). Student engagement is a complex process that
defines student experiences like what they do, feel and think while learning, it also focuses
on how teachers can enhance these student experiences in instructional settings (Zepke,
2017). In modern times, student engagement has been built around the hopeful goal of
enhancing all abilities of students to learn and become lifelong learners in a knowledge-based
society. One of the most important issues currently being faced by higher education
community is student engagement (Leach, 2016).

Engagement level is predicted on this belief that learning improves whenever students are
interested, inquisitive and inspired. Learning may start to suffer whenever students are
disaffected, dispassionate or in other words are ‘disengaged’. Evidence from research by
Hazel Christie & Nina Morris (2019) suggests that wider insights about student engagement
depends on recognizing role of students’ investment in learning process. Ongoing discussions
about its complex nature have made it an enigma for researchers and educators to a certain
degree (Kahn, 2014; Zepke, 2018). Ingrained belief pertaining to engagement is that learning
experiences that are interesting and have substantive meaning to students eventually lead to
superior academic achievement (Schlechty, 2004).

In comparison to their unmotivated and un-engaged peers, students that are motivated and
engaged in learning are better behaved and tend to perform considerably greater
academically (Fredricks et al., 2004). Student engagement is influenced and impacted by
many contextual factors, it does not evolve in vacuum, so it becomes imperative to consider
these wider influences (Quin, 2017; Appleton et al., 2008; Kahu, 2013). Students are more
engaged when relevant and realistic content is provided and they are able to apply what they
learn (Bolliger and Martin, 2020). Higher Education institutions are beginning to create more
engaging experiences for students. These measures are based on the assumptions and ideas
that student who are more engaged and contribute actively to their learning environments
are more likely to repeat the same to an organizational work setting in the form of employee
engagement and are more likely to succeed in their professions.

5
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Frequently, educators imagine that using a specific technological tool or application shall lead
to change in students’ learning experiences and outcomes. However, it’s not the technology
that really matters, but the pedagogical approach how transactions, tasks and activities have
been designed and incorporated by teacher to promote learning and engage students. As
technology can both impede or hasten meaningful learning and student engagement, this
technology-mediated learning environment should be properly investigated (Perini, 2016).

Around whole process of student engagement, role of teacher is at center-stage. It is the

teacher that has decide how to blend conventional pedagogical tools with technology-
enabled learning tools to generate a more meaningful environment that promotes high
engagement resulting in improved learning and retention. Teachers are not considered as
‘lone riders’ now but are deemed as multi-talented professionals that work in collaborative
networks (Martin [Link]., 2018).

So far, interrelationship between student engagement and role of teacher in deciding the use
of blended teaching methods from teachers’ perspective has been relatively unexplored. This
research was carried out to understand the crucial reasons for student disengagement in
teaching sessions from students’ perspectives. Additionally, it discusses the pedagogical
methods contributing towards motivating and engaging students as well as certain measures
are recommended for boosting student engagement from both teachers’ and students’
perspectives. The context of study were teachers teaching Management and Information
Technology (IT) courses in higher education institutions in New Delhi, India.

The study focuses on following three research questions:

RQ1. From students’ perspective, what are the main reasons of disengagement in teaching
session?
RQ2. From teachers’ perspective, what pedagogical methods and preparations can contribute
to higher student engagement in teaching session?

6
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

RQ3. From students’ perspective, what pedagogical methods and preparations can contribute
to their higher engagement in teaching session?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Student Engagement
For last seven decades, interest in student engagement has been on continuous rise (Axelson
& Flick, 2011; Kuh, 2009). Since then, student engagement studies have progressed
considerably, significant contribution was of Astin’s (1984) formative work regarding impact
of the quality and quantity of students’ effort on learning. Subsequently more research
discussed individual dispositions and environmental conditions that contribute towards
student engagement (Martin et al., 2017; Bakker et al., 2015; Pellas, 2014; Gilboy et al., 2015).
Student engagement is a broad phenomenon, and its definitions are ingrained in
psychological, cultural and social perspectives (Fredricks et al., 2004; Wimpenny & Savin-
Baden, 2013; Zepke & Leach, 2010). In any teaching session, student engagement is the
dynamic process that involves students’ motivation and personal acts of attention including
their interactions with peers and teachers (Lawson and Lawson, 2013). Numerous student
engagement models portray engagement as psycho-social complex process. These models
have established the engagement process into three areas (Lam et al., 2012; Kahu, 2013) as
given in Table I.

Table I: Student Engagement Variables and their examples

Factors influencing student Curriculum, technological tools &
engagement pedagogical methods and institutional
culture
Main Indicators of student Meaningful processing of information,
engagement interest in learning, interactions taking
place with
instructors and peers
Expected Outcomes of student Superior academic achievement, personal
engagement growth and retention

7
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Engagement is the energy and efforts employed by students amongst their learning
community and it can be observed through cognitive, behavioral or affective indicators across
a continuum (Fredricks et al. 2004; Reschly and Christenson, 2012); Wang & Holcombe 2010).
It is also considered as a meta-construct that comprises of four components, namely
behavioral, emotional, cognitive and agentic engagement (Fredricks and McColskey, 2012;
Reeve, 2012) (please see Table II).

Table II: Facets of Student Engagement

Facets of Student Meaning
Engagement
Behavioral Engagement It includes the idea of student involvement and
participation in various academic activities. It is
suggested that to be behaviorally engaged, a student
have to comply with norms of teaching session and
refrain from disruptive behavior.
Emotional Engagement It encompasses the positive and negative reactions of
students with their teaching session mates and
teachers. It is also related to the feeling of
belongingness and importance associated with
institution by the student.
Cognitive Engagement It is reflected with the extent of investment done by
student in learning. Here, investment indicates the
exertion of efforts put in for solving complex academic
problems and skill development.
Agentic Engagement It refers to the constructive contribution done by
student in terms of taking initiatives that contribute
towards learning and teaching. Students are considered
as an active agent in the learning process,

8
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Influence of Student Engagement in Meaningful Learning

Engagement can be expressed as how actively a student is involved in a learning activity
(Christenson et al., 2012). Students become builders of their own learning environments
through increasing their engagement in teaching-learning process and they receive greater
support from teachers (Matos et al., 2018). Authentic learning and personal development
outcomes can be positively impacted by student engagement (Carini et al., 2006). Many
research have specified that highly engaged students depict better grade point averages
(GPAs), higher graduation rates, higher levels of educational satisfaction, better retention and
persistence (Kuh et al., 2005, Astin and Sax, 1998).

Teacher as Agent
In higher education, predominantly learning is not expected to be limited to simply acquiring
new information and processes. Thus, the teaching process should emphasize on developing
students’ capability to think about their subject from multiple qualitative ways, so
transmissive teaching that promotes rote learning would not be adequate for developing
critical thinking and intellectual skills essential for students. The explicit method which a
teacher chooses to employ a specific pedagogical method or technological tool will depend
on the distinct contextual circumstances, for example, the type of learning activity and
expected learning outcomes etc. Therefore, the wisdom of teacher is very crucial in deciding
the right blend of conventional pedagogy and technological tools.

METHOD
The research approach employed for the study was interpretative phenomenological analysis
(IPA) technique. IPA is a qualitative research approach applied in exploring and understanding
the lived experiences of a particular phenomenon (Saini and Chaudhary, 2019; Eatough and
Smith, 2008; Smith, 2004; Pringle et al., 2011). This methodology involves detailed
assessment of life of participants, their experiences pertaining to a specific phenomenon, how
they derive meaning attached to the experiences (Smith, 2004). IPA studies attempt to reveal
not only shared experiences, but they also focus on disclosing differences in experiences. This
helps researchers in attaining in-depth insights and gives unambiguous knowledge of
participants’ perceptions and understandings associated to a specific group, in that way it

9
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

does not generate a generalized theory related to whole population (Pietkiewicz and Smith,
2014).

Participants
For the study, participants were from Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) in India. For
any qualitative research, the identification of participants is very crucial. It is mostly done by
selecting people and place as per a specific criterion. Only those are selected who can assist
in better knowledge regarding the central phenomenon (Creswell, 2013). In IPA studies,
generally purposive sampling method is used for selection of research participants. The small
sample size which is broadly homogenous in nature can provide adequate perspective in a
given context (VanScoy and Evenstad, 2015). Small sample sizes ranging from 1 to 15 or more
are mostly undertaken in IPA studies (Smith and Osborn, 2008). Additionally, size of
participants can be between 2 and 25 in a phenomenological research, (Chaudhary et al.,
2019; Creswell, 2012). To this end, 11 teachers teaching in Higher Education Institutions (HEI)
and 16 students pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) courses (all were
in second year of post- graduation) in HEIs located in Delhi and NCR were selected for study.
Out of the 11 teachers, seven were females and four were males. Out of 16 students, eight
were males and eight were females (Table- III). Main reason for collecting data from two
different categories of participants, i.e., teacher and student was to understand the issue of
student engagement from both their perspectives. This would help in a more in-depth
understanding of research problem.

Table III: Profile of Participants

Participant Gender Age Area of specialization
(in years)
Teacher 1 Female 34 Marketing
Teacher 2 Female 42 Economics
Teacher 3 Female 37 Human Resources
Teacher 4 Female 38 Human Resources
Teacher 5 Female 50 Operations Research
Teacher 6 Female 33 International Business

10
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Teacher 7 Female 46 Finance

Teacher 8 Male 44 Business Analytics
Teacher 9 Male 45 Logistics and Supply-chain
Management
Teacher 10 Male 54 Information Technology
Teacher 11 Male 36 Information Technology
Student 1 Female 22 Marketing
Student 2 Female 22 Marketing
aStudent 3 Female 23 Marketing
Student 4 Female 22 Finance
Student 5 Female 25 Finance
Student 6 Female 22 Finance
Student 7 Female 22 International Business
Student 8 Female 23 Business Analytics
Student 9 Male 22 Business Analytics
Student 10 Male 22 Operations Management
Student 11 Male 24 Operations Management
Student 12 Male 25 Operations Management
Student 13 Male 23 Human Resource Management
Student 14 Male 22 Human Resource Management
Student 15 Male 25 Information Technology
Student 16 Male 23 Information Technology

Out of the 11 teachers, seven were females and four were males. Out of 16 students, eight
were males and eight were females (Table- III). Main reason for collecting data from two
different categories of participants, i.e., teacher and student was to understand the issue of
student engagement from both their perspectives. This would help in a more in-depth
understanding of research problem.

11
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLE

In interpretative phenomenological analysis studies, data is mainly collected through semi-
structured interviews (Smith et al., 2009). Primary data was collected via semi-structured
interviews of participants. Semi-structured interviews provided the researchers an
opportunity to have an in-depth engagement with each participant as an individual case and
in detailed examination of their differences and similarities, i.e., the divergences and
convergences. Researchers undertook prior approvals from the respective Deans of various
departments and then had sent requests for personal appointments to participants (both
teachers and students). For data collection, an interview schedule having fifteen questions
and their possible prompts was formed. The inputs of five senior faculty members as experts
in the field were obtained to verify the reliability and validity of questions’ checklist and
suggested modifications were incorporated. Few questions were like, what are possible
reasons of student disengagement, how to enhance student engagement and role of team
interventions in improving engagement etc. For each participant, two interviews consisting of
30 and 60 minutes were organized with each participant. More than one interview gave
participants the opportunity to reflect on questions over time which sometimes resulted in
additional insights. As IPA is committed to in-depth analysis of cases rather than jumping to
generalizations (Smith, 2003), researchers could also occasionally recover missed chances to
probe interesting responses from participants when they were initially first mentioned.
Responses of all interviews were systematically recorded and further transcribed by
researchers. For authentication, transcriptions were sent to participants later and they were
further encouraged to contribute any additional reflections.

Non-probability purposive sampling methods was used for selecting the participants. As it has
been stated in many previous researches that in qualitative research, typically purposive
sampling is used to select and identify the information-rich cases (Patton, 2002; Etikan et al.,
2016). However, in this study, maximum variation sampling was intentionally planned,
according to it, samples of individuals or cases that differ in a feature or trait should be
selected (Creswell, 2003). So, an effort was made to select those HEI teachers and students
that have different specialization areas as background. For protecting anonymity of
participants, their actual names are not mentioned. Reason for selecting both student and

12
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

teacher as sampling unit was that both these categories of individuals have profound effect
on student engagement.

DATA ANALYSIS
Thematic analysis method was followed for analysing collected data by coding the theoretical
concepts that appeared repeatedly, thereby avoiding difficulty of circularity (Dana and
Dumez, 2015). In this process, participants’ answers were thoroughly read and analysed for
identifying key themes that gave profound insights into each participant’s viewpoint on
student engagement. Further, these notes were transcribed in a meaningful way to find out
the exploratory themes arising out of data and subsequently the central themes that evolved
constantly through the analysis of interview transcripts. This process of data analysis is a
significant and flexible method which helps researcher in achieving intricate descriptive
results (Holloway and Todres, 2003). Per theme, excerpts obtained from three to four
participants are appropriate for any sample size that is greater than eight (Smith, 2011).
Under the detailed multi-stage data analysis process, focus was on analyzing a single
participant’s data at a time and then moving from the descriptive analysis to interpretive
analysis through initially capturing participants’ initial thought, in that way generating
tentative themes. To ensure accuracy, the researchers also listened to recording of interviews
and matched the same with the transcript, the emerging empirical comments were written
in a column of the coding sheet. The process proceeded from tabulating generic exploratory
comments of participants to emergent themes and further to superordinate themes for every
participant. The same process was repeated for each participant. The process proceeded from
tabulating generic exploratory comments of participants to emergent themes and further to
superordinate themes for every participant. The same process was repeated for each
participant.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
The emergent themes rising out of exploratory comments from data analysis were clustered
in four super-ordinate themes. The superordinate themes are:
• reasons for student disengagement
• pre-session preparation by teachers
• in-teaching session activities by teachers
13
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

• post-session preparation by teachers

These four superordinate themes give a descriptive and vivid account of the participant’s
subjective experience related to engagement in teaching-learning.

Reasons of students’ disengagement

The ‘reasons of student disengagement’ superordinate theme relates to the student
participants’ views related to their past self while they were attending teaching sessions
conducted by teachers. It demonstrates their insight into why they are less or not interested
in a teaching session due to which it leads to their inability to fully grasp the subject contents.
Some sample responses are discussed below:
Sample-1
‘The teacher was teaching in such a boring manner that it was making me sleep, I tried not to
dodge off, but everything was so general that I decided to switch off my mind. But when I was
preparing for the subject quiz test, I really hated myself for not listening in teaching session. I
could not understand the chapters at all.’ (Student Participant 1) Student participant 1 here
acknowledges why he was not attentive in teaching session even if he understood the
detrimental effect of his actions later.
Sample-2
‘I am a bit more talkative and probably more sociable. I can talk to any girl or boy, but here
my teacher’s now is speaking on and on without bothering whether we are understanding or
not. Feel if they talked to us, we would understand without any problems and stuff so. It may
have helped me to think also.’ (Student Participant 4) Student Participant 4’s response shows
how interactions between teacher and student might have played a greater role in
comprehending and understanding the subject content by student. Based on further analysis,
it can be extrapolated that there are many reasons for students to be inattentive and
disengaged in teaching session. After transcribing responses of teachers and students, the
reasons for students’ disengagement were realized and are categorized as sub-themes (Table
IV).

14
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Table IV: Superordinate Sub-themes related to Students’ Disengagement

Superordinate Sub- Exploratory Details
themes

Insufficient ▪ When there is very less or no interaction between

interpersonal teacher and students while teaching.
communication ▪ When teachers speak at a fast pace, students are not
able to understand the content due to which they
become disengaged.
▪ When only lecture mode of teaching is used with
least interaction with students.

Lack of real- ▪ When teachers don’t use examples (real-time or may be

time hypothetical) for explaining any topic.
application ▪ Cannot relate with examples given by teachers.

Instructor’s ▪ When teachers only read the text written on PPTs (Power
monotonous teaching Point Slides) for teaching a topic and speak in a
style monotonous tone.
▪ Teaching style and content is not interesting.
▪ When teacher uses the same examples repeatedly in
their lectures.
▪ When teachers snub students for asking questions, they
become passive listeners which gradually leads to
boredom.

Unable to ▪ Content is difficult to understand as it is explained in

reduce complex way (not easy way).
complexity ▪ When teacher spend more time in discussing topics that
are totally unrelated to the subject.

15
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Dearth of empathy ▪ When teacher is generally very critical about students’

responses and behaviour.
▪ When teachers are too strict and they are not ready to
listen to anything indirectly related to the subject.
▪ When teacher does not listen to the
professional/personal problems cited by students.
▪

Dubious personal ▪ When teacher gets angry very frequently in teaching

behaviour of Teacher session.
▪ When teachers frequently use their mobile phones for
non- academic purposes in teaching session.
▪ When teachers are partial towards few students in
teaching session.

Impassive attitude ▪ When teacher is not bothered about student attendance

in teaching session.
▪ When teachers speak in very low volume.
▪

Tolerating indiscipline ▪ Distraction due to mobile phones. When teachers do not

emphasize about non-usage of mobile phones by
students in teaching session, the students keep their
mobiles in front of them and frequently look into them
to be aware about incoming calls and messages leading
to lack of concentration towards teaching topic.

16
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Many factors can influence how engaged students are in teaching session such as how
discussion flows are managed, an instructor’s teaching style, or contents related to the day’s
chosen course materials. But importantly, students’ effective engagement requires that
teachers should actively seek to create that type of conditions that foster participating
reactions. Suggestions for encouraging Teachers to Improve Student Engagement For
questions regarding what factors and pedagogical tools can heighten student engagement in
teaching sessions, participants’ opinions indicated that numerous activities need to be
conducted by teachers before undertaking a teaching session, during the sessions and after
completion (post- sessions) also. This evidently signifies that student engagement can be
augmented through effective planning regarding which activities should be conducted prior
to the teaching session, in- teaching session activities and post-session activities. The findings
based on analysis of participants’ transcripts are presented in the form of a matrix in Table-V.
This matrix can be used as a template to formulate an action plan for enhancing student
engagement during teaching sessions.

Table -V: Action Plan for Enhancing Student Engagement in Teaching Session
Superordinat Suggestive Actions based on Exploratory
e Themes Comments
Activities to Conduct
be Regularly/Freque Conduct Sometimes Avoid/Never
Conducted ntly
by
Teacher
■ Prepare the ■ Some general ■ Go unprepared in
Pre-Session session thoroughly advice to all students teaching session for
Preparation and make deliberate for personal and conducting a
for enhancing efforts for making professional session.
Student the session development.
Engagement interesting by pre- ■ Personal advice for
deciding the professional
pedagogical tools to development of

17
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

be used for it. student can also be

■ Update yourself given by the teacher.
(teacher) with
latest news and
trends for
correlating with
teaching content.
■ Look for and
collect some real-
life examples
related to the topic
to be taught in
teaching session.
■ Try to address ■ Sometimes ask ● Make fun of the
students by their students which answer given by a
name (memorize activity (list some student.
their activities to choose
names in initial few from) they
sessions).
In-Teaching ■ Correlate subject would prefer to ● Ridicule a
session topics to some kind carry out in student.
Activities for of news prevalent teaching session ● Make personal
enhancing during current time for understanding a remarks to
Student period. topic. students.
Engagement ■ Inculcate active ■ Make use of group ● Criticize their
listening by using activity for explaining a family
relevant real-life topic, this may help in background.
examples to which experiential learning ● Become too
students can also. lenient due to
connect easily. ■ Use a story to which indiscipline
■ Acknowledge the elaborate and explain may prevail in

18
Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

responses given by a topic. teaching session.

any student without ■ Use audio-video
being judgmental aids for attracting
about it. more student
■ At the end of the attention.
session, ask some ■ Assign group
students to briefly assignments/ projects
describe the main for some topics. Make
points learnt in the each student write
session. their
■ Provide timely and SWOC (Strength,
effective feedback. Weaknesses,
■ Be energetic and Opportunities &
maintain Challenges).
enthusiasm (it is ■ Ensure that each
contagious, it may student writes an
spread amongst the action plan for
students and make improving upon their
the teaching session strength areas,
more vibrant). overcoming their
■ Tell few students weaknesses, imploring
to re-cap the main related opportunities
points related to and how to tackle the
the previous challenges pertaining
session (so that if to their personal &
any student was professional career.
absent, he/she may ■ Also emphasize that
easily catch up & be each student writes
more attentive). down their short-term
goals (intend to
achieve in next one

19
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

year) and long-term

goals (intend to
achieve in next 3-5
years) on a piece of
paper or on their
electronic device and
save the
document for
frequent future
reference.
Post-Session ■ Keep taking ■ Inquire about ■ Being partial to
Activities for informal feedback personal problem of a/few students.
enhancing from few students student (if you find ■ Back-biting about
Student after the session. something unusual in some student or peer
Engagement ■ Reflect and try to their behaviour). or any other
analyze whether organizational
the session could member.
be made more
interesting and
effective.
■ Update yourself
(faculty) with
latest news and
trends.

20
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS FOR ENCOURAGING TEACHERS TO

IMPROVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
The answers of participants also stated various propositions for academic administrators
such as the top management officials, director and other administrative staff members that
can result in encouraging teachers to improve student engagement. The themes arising out
of these are depicted in Table VI.

Table VI: Themes based on Suggestions for Academic Administrators for Encouraging
Teachers to Improve Student Engagement
Superordinate Themes Exploratory Details
Faculty Development ▪ Organize faculty development programs and
Programs also provide opportunities for training teachers
for focusing on student engagement.
Modelling High Engaging ▪ Encourage teachers to attend few sessions
Teachers conducted by teachers having high student
engagement in teaching session.
Student Engagement Level ▪ Make student engagement an inherent part of
as a criterion for teachers’ performance appraisal and their
Performance Appraisal improvement plan.
Student Engagement ▪ Conduct student survey to assess each
Surveys teacher’s student engagement level (for
example-high, medium or low).
Encourage ‘Backward ▪ Encourage ‘Backward Design Method’ for
Design Method’ preparing for a teaching session. Backward
design is an educational curriculum designing
method by setting goals prior to choosing forms
of assessment and instructional methods.

CONCLUSION
Student engagement benefits not only students but is also crucial for higher education
institutions and their stakeholders. The present study investigated the perspectives and

21
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

reflections of students and teachers in magnifying student engagement in HEIs. Important

factors in engagement dynamics have been identified, based on findings from this research,
appropriate technological interventions and pedagogical strategies can be designed. As
teachers and institutions are putting many practical strategies in action, the scope of student
engagement is likely to increase more in near future. It enables students with capability to
acquie and practice essential skills to build successful future. Experts agree that student
engagement leads to imparting knowledge better and promotes values of ownership amongst
students. They further iterate that engagement during the teaching-learning process
develops a superior sense of responsibility while contributing towards developing
communication skills of students and enriching their professional skills as well. It fosters
better relationships with other students and faculty also. As a result, it improves interpersonal
relations in an educational setting thereby honing students’ personality and skills that are
vital for their professional development. The teachers should understand this fact that every
single opportunity to engage students is unique in itself and it needs to be tailored
accordingly. Nowadays, several institutions have adopted emerging technologies like student
engagement portals and apps to improve engagement. These technological applications can
help teachers and educational administrators in monitoring students’ current performance,
predict potential concerns, and prepare workable solutions for strategically advanced
engagement of students.

LIMITATIONS OF PRESENT STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The present qualitative research used only interviews as primary data source for study.
Moreover, it followed a perpendicular approach instead of adopting a wider approach that
could have included more categories of educational institutions. Therefore, the results cannot
be generalized. However, in context of student engagement in HEI students, the research
study presents valuable insights that may further contribute towards more extensive research
on same topic. The factors identified in this study can be included in creating a scale of
measurement for student engagement. The formation of such scale would be highly
beneficial for stakeholders related to field of higher education in general. The particular
impact of technological interventions on student engagement could also be examined in
future.

22
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

REFERENCES
Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L. and Furlong, M. J. (2008). Student engagement with school:
Critical conceptual and methodological issues of construct. Psychology in Schools, 45
(5), 369-386.
Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education.
Journal of College Student. Personnel Psychology. 25 (4), 297-308.
Astin, A. W. and Sax, L. J. (1998). How undergraduates are affected by service participation.
Journal of College Student Development, 39 (3), 251-263.
Axelson, R. D. and Flick, A. (2010). Defining student engagement. Change: The Magazine of
Higher Learning, 43 (1), 38-43.
Bakker, A. B., Sanz Vergel, A.I.S. and Kuntz, J. (2015). Student engagement and performance:
A weekly diary study on the role of openness. Motivation and Emotion, 39 (1), 49-62.
Bolliger, D.U. and Martin, F. (2020). Factors underlying the perceived importance of online
student engagement strategies. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol.
ahead-of- print No. ahead-of-print. [Link]
Carini, R. M., Kuh, G. D. and Klein, S. P. (2006). Student engagement and student learning:
Testing the linkages. Research in Higher Education, 47 (1), 1-32.
Chaudhary, N.S., Phoolka, S., Sengar, R. and Pande, S. (2019). Whistle blowing in Indian higher
education sector: A qualitative study. International Journal of Learning and Change,
11 (2), 145-168.
Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., and Wylie, C. (Eds.) (2012). Handbook of Research on Student
Engagement. Boston: Springer.
Creswell, J.W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. London: Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative
and qualitative research, 4th Ed., Boston, MA: Pearson.
Creswell, J.W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches., Los Angeles, CA: Sage
Dana, L. P. and Dumez, H. (2015). Qualitative research revisited: epistemology of a
comprehensive approach. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business, 26 (2), 154-170.
Eatough, V. and Smith, J. A. (2008). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. The Sage
Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, Vol. 179, pp. 194.

23
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Etikan, I., Musa, S. A. and Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5 (1), 1- 4.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., and Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: potential of the
concepts, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74 (1), 59-109.
Fredricks, J., and Mccolskey, W. (2012). The Measurement of student engagement: A
comparative analysis of various methods and student self-report instruments. S.L.
Christenson et al. (eds.), Handbook of Research on Student Engagement, 763-782.
Gilboy, M. B., Heinerichs, S., and Pazzaglia, G. (2015). Enhancing student engagement using
the flipped classroom. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 47 (1), 109-114.
Hazel Christie & Nina Morris (2019). Using assessed blogs to enhance student engagement.
Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2019.1662390.
Holloway, I. and Todres, L. (2003). The status of method: Flexibility, consistency and
coherence. Qualitative Research, 3 (3), 345-357.
Kahn, P. E. (2014). Theorising student engagement in higher education. British Educational
Research Journal, 40 (6), 1005-1018.
Kahu, E. R. (2013). Framing student engagement in higher education. Studies in Higher
Education, 38 (5), 758–773.
Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual and empirical
foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research, 141, 5-20. doi:10.1002/ir.283
Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J.H. and Whitt, E. J. (2005). Student success in college: Creating
conditions that matter. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass
Lam, S., Wong, B., Yang, H., and Yi, L. (2012). Understanding student engagement with a
contextual model. In S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly and C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of
Research on Student Engagement. New York: Springer.
Lawson, M. A. and Lawson, H. A. (2013). New conceptual frameworks for student engagement
research, policy and practice. Review of Educational Research, 83 (3), 432-479.
Leach, L. (2016). Enhancing student engagement in one institution. Journal of Further and
Higher Education, 40 (1), 23-47.
Martin, A., Tarnanen, M., and Tynjala, P. (2018). Exploring teachers' stories of writing: A
narrative perspective. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 24 (6), 690-705.
Martin, K., Goldwasser, M., and Galentino, R. (2017). Impact of cohort bonds on student
satisfaction and engagement. Current Issues in Education, 19 (3), 1-14.

24
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Matos, I., Reeve, J., Herrera, D., and Claux, M. (2018). Students’ agentic engagement predicts
longitudinal increases in perceived autonomy-ssupportive teaching: the squeaky
wheel gets the grease. Journal of Experimental Education, 86 (4), 592-609.
Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods, (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
Pellas, N. (2014). The influence of computer self-efficacy, metacognitive self-regulation, and
self-esteem on student engagement in online learning programs: Evidence from the
virtual world of second life. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 157–170.
Perini, M.R. (2016). Digital tools for learning, engagement, and research: An argument for
student affairs and academic libraries. Global Journal of Human-Social Science
Research, 15 (12), 43-50.
Pietkiewicz, I. and Smith, J. A. (2014). A practical guide to using interpretative
phenomenological analysis in qualitative research psychology. Psychological Journal,
20 (1), 7-14.
Pringle, J., Drummond, J., McLafferty, E. and Hendry, C. (2011). Interpretative
phenomenological analysis: A discussion and critique. Nurse Researcher, 18 (3), 20-
24.
Quin, D. (2017). Longitudinal and contextual associations between teacher–student
relationships and student engagement. Review of Educational Research, 87 (2), 345–
387.
Reeve, J. (2012). A self-determination theory perspective on student engagement. In
Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L. and Wylie, C. (Eds.), Handbook of research on student
engagement. Boston: Springer.
Reschly, A. L. and Christenson, S. L. (2012). Jingle, jangle, and conceptual haziness: evolution
and future directions of the engagement construct. In Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L.
and Wylie, C. (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement. Boston: Springer.
Saini, D. and Chaudhary, N.S. (2019). What drives research in higher education? An Indian
context. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. doi: 10.1108/JARHE-07-
2018-0157.
Schlechty, P. C. (2004). Shaking up the schollhouse: How to support and sustain educational
innovation. Indianapolis: Jossey-Bass.

25
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Smith, J. A. (2003). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London:

Sage
Smith, J. A. (2004). Reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological
analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative
Research in Psychology, 1 (1), 39-54.
Smith, A.C. (2011). Role ambiguity and role conflict in nurse case managers: An integrative
review. Professional Case Management, 16 (4), 182-196.
Smith, J. A. and Osborn, M. (2008). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. in Smith, J.A.
(Ed.), Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods. London: Sage
Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis:
Theory, method and research. Los Angeles: Sage.
Tight, M. P. (2019). Student Retention and Engagement in Higher Education. Journal of
Further and Higher Education, 1-16. doi:10.1080/0309877X.2019.1576860
VanScoy, A. and Evenstad, S. B. (2015). Interpretative phenomenological analysis for LIS
research. Journal of Documentation. 71 (2), 338-357.
Wang, M. and Holcombe, R. (2010). Adolescents’ perceptions of school environment,
engagement, and academic achievement in middle school. American Educational
Research Journal, 47 (3), 633-662.
Wimpenny, K., and Savin-Baden, M. (2013). Alienation, agency, and authenticity: A synthesis
of the literature on student engagement. Teaching in Higher Education, 18 (3) pp. 311–
326.
Zepke, N. (2017). Student engagement in neoliberal times: Theories and practices for learning
and teaching in higher education. Singapore: Springer,
Zepke, N. (2018). Student engagement in neo-liberal times: What is missing? Higher Education
Research and Development, 37 (2), 433-446.
Zepke, N. and Leach, L. (2010). Improving student engagement: Ten Proposal for action.
Active Learning in Higher Education, 11 (3), 167-177.

26
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2021, Pp. 27-34
ISSN 0976-0148 (Online) 0976-013X (Print)
DOI: [Link]

Personality as a Predictor of Usage of Wearable Fitness Trackers

Shweta Jha* and Vandana Malviya**

ABSTRACT
Personality types play a crucial role in determining the usage of wearable fitness trackers.
People of different personality types respond contrariwise toward urge for using wearable
fitness trackers, setting goals, monitoring their own physical activities and rejoicing
accomplishment of set objectives by sharing the outcomes with friends and family members.
This article provides an incisive view regarding the extent to which personality types might
predict the usage patterns vis-à-vis wearable fitness trackers.

Keywords: personality types, wearable fitness trackers, youth, health and wellness, India

INTRODUCTION
Fitness is crucial for physical and psychological wellbeing of the people. It is at times strange
to observe that despite being aware of the fact the physical inactivity is a major cause of ill-
health throughout the industrialized countries; a sizeable population do not perform any type
of exercise or physical activity. Furthermore, number of people involved in any sort of fitness
program in India is abysmally low. Hence, the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi
launched the ambitious Fit India Movement in the year 2019 to motivate the people to keep

*Associate Professor, Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi, India

E-mail: [Link]@[Link]
**Associate Professor, Trinity Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi, India
E-mail: vmalviya2015@[Link]

27
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

themselves fit and actively participate in physical activities as integral part of their daily
routine. While a large population in India do not get much time to exercise, the researchers
observed that the people generally prefer basic forms of exercise, where majority of them
choose to do brisk walking (Prabhudev, 2019). The other forms of exercises like Yoga, Pilates,
Cross-fits, Cardio, and Bodyweight are practised by relatively lesser percentage of people
involved in any formal or informal exercise regimen (The Times of India, 2019).

Interestingly, the wearable fitness trackers have caught the imagination of the youth inclined
towards physical activities. These wearables help them keep a tab on their physical activities
in terms of setting goals, monitoring milestones and accomplishing the set objectives. Young
people starting physical activities as a routine are often motivated by the wearable fitness
trackers to continue their regimen. Faster adoption of wearbale fitness trackers in India has
provided a unique opportunity to the developers of wearables to enter into the ever-growing
Indian market. India has now emerged to be the third-largest market for wearables in the
world, ranking just behind China and the US. The wearable market in India grew to 123.6% in
the year 2019 as compared to 2018 (Business Today 2019). CAGR has projected the growth
of global business tracker market to reach to $62,128 million by the year 2023 (Allied Market
Research, 2018) while in India this wearable segment is expected to rise up to $65.4 million
by the year 2024 (Statista, 2021). These wearables are not just restricted to athletes but have
extended to every individual who is interested in good health and fitness.

In India, prices of the wearable fitness trackers range from INR 1000 to INR 30,000. This gives
a wide range of prices to the users to choose, based on their affordability and utility. These
wearable fitness trackers provide a variety of features like heart rate monitoring, SpO 2,
calorie, sleep, and also gives an in-depth data to its users. The devices can be synced with
mobile and thus can provide trend analysis of data. These devises allow its users to connect
their wearables to mobile or computer through wireless and thus facilitate sharing of data
with their community. Availability of low-priced wearable fitness trackers has augmented
their popularity and usage. However, despite the phenomenal growth of wearable fitness
trackers in India market, it still remains intriguing to explore the personality types of the
people who adopt and continue to use wearables to track their fitness and health. Technology
acceptance model has shown that human beings adopt new technologies only when they

28
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

believe that the new technology would be of some use to them (Davis, 1989). It appears that
Indians are finding some utility in the wearables which is reflected in the inorganic rise of this
market over the years. However, not much research has been conducted to find out whether
personality types have any role in determining the purchase and usage patterns of wearable
fitness trackers.

RELATED WORK
B. F. Skinner in his operant conditioning theory of learning mentioned the concept of stimulus
and response. Skinner elaborated that the behaviour is a function of its consequences. The
fitness trackers, by allowing users to track and monitor their health and physical activities
(consequences), encourages a positive action of repeat behaviour of continuing with efforts
to increase steps, duration of physical activities etc. Scholars observed a significant
enhancement in the number of daily steps, moderate and vigorous physical activities, and
energy expenditure in the participants who used wearable fitness trackers (Brickwood et al.,
2019). Other studies have also hinted at modest positive impact of wearables on the intensity
of physical activities of users (Bort-Roig, 2014; Ridgers et al., 2016).

Although researches on influence of personality types on usage patterns of wearable fitness

trackers is scant, differences in terms of people’s choices vis-à-vis attitudes towards physical
exercise and awareness about their health present a strong rationale for the inevitable linkage
between the two. A research indicates that those scoring high on emotional stability,
extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness tend to be regular in their
physical exercise (INVISION, 2007). Further, studies also reveal that self-motivated people
have a higher probability of continuing with their exercise regimen and finally enter the state
of flow (Ackerman, 2020).

Interestingly, personality has been observed to have a large impact on the usage of wearable
fitness trackers. In a study it was observed that people scoring low in conscientiousness
reported association with negative affect while using a wearable (Ryan et al., 2019). On the
other hand, people with other personality types were observed to reflect negative affect
when they were unable to use their devise (Ryan et al., 2019). Leaving aside the other
personality types, people with openness to experience and those scoring low on

29
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

conscientiousness showed high risk of negative psychological consequences of wearable

usage (Ryan et al., 2019). Yet another research reveals that the people high on openness were
observed to adopt wearables because of their high levels of curiosity; whereas those high on
neuroticism were found averse to adopting the wearables in case they did not find any unique
benefits from them. Extraverts, on the other hand, adopted wearables only if they felt it
would lead them to increase their social affiliation (Rauschnabel et al., 2015).

The greatest benefit of these wearables is that they allow users not only to set goals but also
to share their achievement with their community. It was observed that specific and
measurable goals help individuals describe their acceptable level of performance.
Furthermore, in another study, behavioural changes were observed when persuasion tools
were used to achieve goals (Lin and Mann, 2012). Those scoring high on Openness and
conscientiousness expressed significant relationships with persuasion technologies. These
technologies were least desirable for the ones scoring high on agreeableness (Halko and
Kientz, 2010). Thus, those have dominant openness or conscientiousness can be persuaded
to achieve goals, even if it means stretching a little.

However, despite the immense benefits of wearables, it has been observed that people lose
interest and then finally stop using these fitness trackers after six months (Dahl, 2015). This
again is a matter of interest to find out why people quit using these wearables and is there
any particular category of people who quit these wearables? This could be either because
people of some category of personality do not find utility of the wearables. People who
exhibited agreeableness type of personality were observed to have a higher tendency to use
technology while those with neuroticism type of personality found technology less useful
(Özbek et al., 2014). Individuals with relatively stable personalities were found to have higher
levels of dislike for the idea of being controlled by some sort of technologies (Kim and McGill,
2011; Fast et al., 2009; Galinsky et al., 2003). Out of the five personality types (see Table 1),
extroversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were observed to have a direct
positive relationship with autonomy, a component of self-determination theory (Ramsey and
Hall, 2016).

30
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Table 1: Personality Types

Personality Types Characteristics
Neuroticism Distinguishes the stability of emotions and even-temperedness from
negative emotionality, which can be described as feeling nervous, sad
and tense.
Conscientiousness Suggests self-use of socially prescribed restraints that facilitate goal
completion, following norms and rules, and prioritizing tasks.
Agreeableness Distinguishes pro-social and communal orientation toward others from
antagonism and includes traits such as altruism, trust, and modesty.
Extraversion. Suggests a lively approach toward the social and material world and
includes traits such as sociability, activity and assertiveness
Openness Describes the wholeness and complexity of an individual’s
psychological and experiential life.
(Source: The Big Five factors (John, Naumann, Soto, 2008)

DISCUSSION
From the extant literature, it appears that various personality types determine the probability
of adoption and usage of wearable fitness trackers. Furthermore, the tendency to quit the
usage of fitness trackers can also be explained using self-determination theory which
mentions three fundamental psychological needs for an individual to be intrinsically
motivated (Deci and Ryan, (1985). These three needs are autonomy (a feeling of control over
one’s life), relatedness (feeling of connecting with others and a feeling of belongingness), &
competence (perception of ability to interact with the world). Motivation in an individual is
largely determined by the extent to which these needs are satisfied (Deci and Ryan, (1985). It
may be thus understood that the tendency to adopt and continue to use a technology could
be attributed to the intrinsic motivation of an individual (Juodkūnė, 2015).

CONCLUSION
From this study, it becomes all the more apparent that the certain personality types
determine the possible adoption and usage of wearable fitness trackers. For example,
individuals with agreeableness as a personality trait were observed to have a higher tendency

31
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

to use technology while those with a trait of neuroticism were found to be averse to using
technology. In the same way, other personality traits also had varied influence on adoption
and usage of wearable fitness trackers. While wearable fitness trackers were observed to
have a general appeal among the users as a catalyst encouraging them to participate more
actively in physical exercises, various personality traits showed distinct differences in
attitudes towards them. This study has significant managerial implications both for HR and
Marketing functions. In HR, results of this study can be used to plan technology adoption
program based on personality types of the employees while in Marketing, it can really help in
targeting the potential buyers of the wearable fitness trackers based on personality traits by
creating trait-appropriate advertising campaigns.

REFERENCES
Ackerman, C.E. (2020). Self-determination theory of motivation: why intrinsic motivation
matters, [Link], [Link]
determination-theory/, April 23, 2020.
Allied Market Research. (2018). Fitness trackers market by device type,
[Link]
Bort-Roig J, Gilson ND, Puig-Ribera A, Contreras RS, Trost SG. (2014). Measuring and
influencing physical activity with smartphone technology: a systematic review. Sports
Med. 44(5):671–86.
Brickwood, K. J., Watson, G., O'Brien, J., & Williams, A. D. (2019). Consumer-based wearable
activity trackers increase physical activity participation: systematic review and meta-
analysis. JMIR Health and Health, 7(4), 11819.
Business Today (2019). India emerges third largest wearable market in Q2, 2019
[Link]
wearable-market-in-q2-2019/story/[Link]
Dahl, M. (2015). People Lose Interest in Fitness Trackers After 6 Months, The Cut,
[Link]
Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of
information technology. MIS Quarterly, 319-340

32
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination
in personality. Journal of research in personality, 19(2), 109-134
Fast, N. J., Gruenfeld, D. H., Sivanathan, N., & Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Illusory control: A
generative force behind power's far-reaching effects. Psychological Science, 20(4),
502-508.
Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of
personality and social psychology, 85(3), 453.
Halko, S., & Kientz, J. A. (2010). Personality and persuasive technology: an exploratory study
on health-promoting mobile applications. In International conference on persuasive
technology (pp. 150-161). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Juodkūnė, I. (2015). The teachers’ personality traits influence on self-
determination. Pedagogika, 117(1).
Kim, S., & McGill, A. L. (2011). Gaming with Mr. Slot or gaming the slot machine? Power,
anthropomorphism, and risk perception. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(1), 94-
107.
Lin, J. J., & Mann, D. M. (2012). Application of persuasion and health behavior theories for
behavior change counseling: design of the ADAPT (Avoiding Diabetes Thru Action Plan
Targeting) program. Patient education and counseling, 88(3), 460-466.
Özbek, V., Alnıaçık, Ü., Koc, F., Akkılıç, M. E., & Kaş, E. (2014). The impact of personality on
technology acceptance: A study on smart phone users.
Prabhudev N. (2019) Not active at 30, Indians suffer at 60, Deccan Chronicale,
[Link]
[Link]
Ramsey, M. L., & Hall, E. E. (2016). Autonomy mediates the relationship between personality
and physical activity: An application of self-determination theory. Sports, 4(2), 25.
Rauschnabel, P. A., Brem, A., & Ivens, B. S. (2015). Who will buy smart glasses? Empirical
results of two pre-market-entry studies on the role of personality in individual
awareness and intended adoption of Google Glass wearables. Computers in Human
Behavior, 49, 635-647.
Ridgers ND, McNarry MA, Mackintosh KA. Feasibility and effectiveness of using wearable
activity trackers in youth: a systematic review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth.
2016;4(4):[Link] (2007). Study looks at why people stick with or abandon

33
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

wearable devices, [Link]

abandon-wearable-devices/, September 20, 2017.
Ryan, J., Edney, S., & Maher, C. (2019). Anxious or empowered? A cross-sectional study
exploring how wearable activity trackers make their owners feel. BMC
psychology, 7(1), 42.
Statista (2021), Wearables, [Link]
Times of India (2019). 64 per cent Indians don't exercise: Study
[Link]
cent-indians-dont-exercise-study/articleshow/[Link]

34
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2021, Pp. 35-53
ISSN 0976-0148 (Online) 0976-013X (Print)
DOI: [Link]

Revamped Thrust on Women’s Participation for their Entitlements

under NRHM: A Study of Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha

Bhabani Priyadarshini Mohanty* and Smita Nayak**

ABSTRACT
Regardless of several growth-orientated policies implemented by the government, the
widening economic, regional and gender disparities are posing challenges for the health
sector. The health status of Indians, especially women is still a cause for serious concern,
especially that of the rural population. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was
launched by Government of India with a view to bring about dramatic improvement in the
health system and health status of the people, especially those living in rural areas. The study
aimed to understand the knowledge level of women beneficiaries on NRHM related services.
The study further focused on understanding the extent of availability and accessibility,
challenges faced and the benefits received by women. The research work was carried out in
three Gram Panchayats of in Pipili block of Puri District in Odisha. Multi stage sampling
method was adopted to select the sample group for the study. The study was conducted
among 278 women beneficiaries of NRHM. The researcher used 120 item semi structured and
validated interview schedule for collecting the data. The study results show that there is a
need to strengthen the grass root level interventions in terms of strengthening the sub-
centres and involvement of Gram Panchayat in fulfilling the health mission objectives of the

*Research Scholar, PG Department of Political Science, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India

**Head, Post Graduate Department of Political Science, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India
E-mail: nayaksmita1992@[Link]

35
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

country. The Correlation between the knowledge scores and benefits scores was significant
(r = .705, P>.001). The study suggests having effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms
at all levels with clearly designed indicators and means of verification to ensure the success
of the programme.

KEYWORDS: NRHM, Women Beneficiaries, Accredited Social Health Activist, Gram Panchayat,
Anganwadi

INTRODUCTION
India has 16% of the world's population but only 2.4% of its landmass, resulting in great
pressures for resources. It is a country where 70% of the population resides in a rural area
and males significantly outnumber females, an imbalance that has increased over time. 1 The
typical female advantage in life expectancy is not seen in India and this suggests there are
systematic problems in women's health care. Indian women have high mortality rates,
particularly during childhood and in their reproductive years. India's maternal mortality rates
in rural areas are among the world's highest. From a global perspective, India accounts for
19% of all live births and 27% of all maternal deaths. The health of Indian women is
intrinsically linked to their status in society, especially for those living in a rural area.
Research into women's status in society has found that the contributions Indian women make
to families are often overlooked. Instead, they are often regarded as economic burdens and
this view is common in rural areas of the northern belt. 2 There is a strong preference for sons
in India because they are expected to care for ageing parents. This son preference and high
dowry costs for daughters’ marriage results in the mistreatment of daughters. Indeed, Indian
women have low levels of both education and formal labor-force participation. They typically
have little autonomy, living first under the control of their fathers, then their husbands, and
finally their sons. . These factors have a negative impact on the health status of Indian women.
Poor health has repercussions not only for women, but also their families. Women in poor
health are more likely to give birth to low weight infants. They are less likely to be able to
provide food and adequate care for their children. Finally, a woman's health affects the
household's economic wellbeing because a woman in poor health will be less productive in
the labor force. 3 In rural areas where women are less educated and economically deprived,
their health condition is worse. In the context of health as defined by WHO - '…a state of

36
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity' 4, one must ask how can this be achieved for Indian women. The main aim of NRHM
is to provide accessible, affordable, accountable, effective and reliable primary health care
facilities, especially to the poor and vulnerable sections of the population. The mission further
seeks to build greater ownership of the programme in the community through involvement
of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), NGOs and other stakeholders at national, state, district
and sub-district levels. 5 Given the wide scope of the Mission and multiplicity of activities and
being in the 16th year of existence, an appraisal study of NRHM has been carried out by the
researcher with an objective of evaluation and assessment of the availability, adequacy and
utilization of health services in the rural areas, the role played by ASHAs, AYUSH in creating
awareness of health, nutrition among the rural population and to identify the constraints and
catalysts in the implementation of the NRHM programmes. Along with role of ASHA and
mainstreaming of AYUSH the utilization aspects of health services necessitate studying other
crucial factors like availability, planning and preparedness of health facilities and human
resources, drugs availability, quality of MCH care and diagnostic-services, referral services,
process of accreditation, effective decentralization, effective utilization of funds, etc.
Simultaneous attention on programs impacting nutrition, capacity building, empowerment,
etc. are equally important for effective utilization of the health services. All these
interconnected aspects for promotion for utilization of healthcare system in rural areas have
been brought under the purview of the present study. The present study focuses on the
analytical exposition of paradigm shift from provisioning to entitlement approach furthered
by NRHM in Pipili block of Puri District in Odisha to strengthen empowerment of rural women.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The researcher reviewed the studies conducted on functioning of within the last decade. A
thorough examination of the available literature shows that NRHM has resulted in the
betterment of funds related to health besides ameliorating the infrastructure associated with
health delivery. It has improved health care delivery in many regions (Jacob, 2010) 6. The
studies show that most of the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) has been able to
fathom their part with respect to providing assistance to the expectant mothers by taking
them to the medical institutions. They have also understood their duties pertaining to
providing counseling to the communities in matters related to breastfeeding, ANC, PNC,

37
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

immunization and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and also of reproductive
tract infection.

It has been seen that monetary benefits give a significant push to ASHA and as a result, site
based activities and delivery related activities are fast gaining the reputation of being an
extremely pivotal domain to the same (Deoki, 2007) 7. Studies also reveal that the OPD visits
have increased at all three levels. It is also notable that there was no significant increase in
service delivery in the initial two years of NRHM (Kumar et al., 2009) 8. This was due to the
initial phase of the implementation where the entire system was not in place and the
awareness about the scheme did not reach adequately to the masses. The number of
institutional deliveries has significantly increased after 2007 courtesy the initiatives taken by
NRHM (Parveen et al., 2011) 9. It has been found out that facilities provided by ASHA are more
likely to be availed by literate women who have delivered in the recent past and who hail
from a relatively elevated socio-economic background. It has also been seen that Hindu
women, women who are young and those whose status is comparatively lesser have greater
probability of availing health services provided by ASHA regarding Ante Natal Care and Post
Natal Care than the others. It was seen that females hailing from castes which are not
regarded to be elevated have a higher probability to utilize antenatal care services and post
natal care services. It was also found that women from lower castes were more likely to avail
antenatal and postnatal care (Manish et al., 2010) 10. Some of the prominent attempts are
providing benefits offered by Janani Suraksha Yojana in order to promote institutional
deliveries, rooting for the establishment of services in the domain of obstetrics, building the
capacities of nurses and nurse midwives for a period of 14-21 days in order for them to
become capable birth attendants (Paul et al., 2011) 11. Steps are being taken to ensure the
participation of NGOs in matters related to health delivery systems. There is an attempt to
improve the infrastructure related to the training requirements of ASHA. Around 300 NGOs
have been roped to assist with the training of ASHA.

Jagdish Bhatia (1993) 12 in his study titled ‘Levels and causes of maternal mortality in southern
India’ discusses that majority of the researches centered on the mortality rates of pregnant
women and also those women who have just delivered rely solely on facts and figures taken
from hospitals. The data provided by hospitals does not give the accurate picture concerning

38
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

maternal mortality as it fails to include the number of deaths that take place during deliveries
which are non institutional. In a country like India, a substantial number of deliveries still take
place at the residence of the concerned person and hence, it becomes all the more important
to include such instances as well while giving an account of maternal mortality. According to
Kranti Suresh Vora (2012) 13, rural women in India contribute in a lopsided manner to the
nation's staggering maternal mortality ratio. In response to this problem, the Indian
government introduced a conditional cash transfer scheme, "Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY),"
in 2005 to ameliorate the reach of maternal health care among the women belonging to
weaker sections. This study investigated the role of JSY/government assistance, and other
health care sector and household factors in estimating the usage patterns with respect to
maternal health facilities by the village women belonging to the economically backward
sections of the society in the 2 states mentioned above. Health care sector factors included
receipt of JSY payment, provision of a primary health center with 24 hour facilities, and
connection to a health institution by a durable road. Household factors included maternal
education, paternal education, age at first birth and parity. The use of the following four
maternal health care services was examined: adequate antenatal care, institutional delivery,
private facility delivery and Cesarean section. State findings were compared and
contextualized by examining health polices/practices and health infrastructure within each
state.

A study conducted by Rani [Link] (2008) 14 titled ‘Differentials in the Quality of Antenatal Care
in India’ found out that the Northern states as well as the Southern ones have quality of
antenatal care which is not as per the prescribed standards. However, South India fared
relatively better than North India, especially with respect to women belonging to backward
sections of the society. It was seen that North India had more pronounced differences in
terms of the socio economic variables determining the quality of care compared to South
India. However, the fact remains that both the regions showed considerable differences with
respect to socio economic variables determining quality of care. A healthy relationship of
paramount importance was seen with respect to the quality of the antenatal care and its
usage in the rural regions as part of the multivariate analysis. A major reason behind the
antenatal care services not being used optimally is the low quality of the same. It is essential
to introduce more measures (policies, program based interventions etc.) in order to

39
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

ameliorate the condition of maternal care in the country, especially, with respect to the
people belonging to the poverty stricken sections of the society more so, in North India. It is
important for the National Rural Health Mission, to stress more on ameliorating antenatal
care in the country in order to elevate the condition of maternal health.

Sharma [Link] (2012) 15 has done a study on the impact of NRHM in its antenatal care mainly in
urban and rural areas. The study was conducted at a Primary Health Center among 682
women, hailing from both urban and rural areas varying in age, different social background
and religion. The study shows 46 that 58.5% of women, of both urban and rural areas had
utilized ANC services in their first trimester itself. The interesting finding is that both educated
and uneducated women had received the ANC services, and hence, education was not an
influencing factor. In rural areas, the service of ASHA and other health workers had motivated,
encouraged and convinced the women to utilize the service of NRHM. 86.5% of urban women
and 70.4% of rural women had their ANC visit more than three times. The study shows that
the socioeconomic and religious factors are the only influential ones in the antenatal care
services.

STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

The literatures show that women are one of the major beneficiaries of NRHM programmes in
the country. NRHM focuses on providing health services to rural women in a manner which is
affordable, accessible and effective. The Mission appears to be a step in the right direction as
the rural women face many health challenges. The awareness level pertaining to NRHM and
the accessibility of its services were also a major concern of this research. This research was
mainly concerned about the state of knowledge, accessibility and availability, benefits and
challenges of the programmes centered on rural women beneficiaries. It also aimed to study
the socio demographic variables influencing the benefits of NRHM. Since NRHM started as a
strategy to improve the health infrastructure of the country, this study has great significance
to understand the grass root realities felt by the women beneficiaries. The study was
undertaken keeping the perspective of community participation, entitlement and sense of
ownership in mind and it was a micro analysis of the variables featured under NRHM. Since
the Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha being a suburban block has been recognized by the

40
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Government for having representative health indicators, the implementation of NRHM will
have great significance over there.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The major part of the benefit under NRHM is scheduled for women. A plethora of innovations
are introduced under NHM by the Central Government and the State Governments. All these
innovations are looking to provide quality healthcare to rural population, especially women
at an affordable price and in an accessible manner. This study was an attempt to understand
the perception, participation and ownership exhibited by women beneficiaries residing in the
selected GPs of Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha with respect to their knowledge about
the programmes, availability and accessibility of the services, challenges faced in availing the
services and the benefits received from NRHM. From the point of view of community
participation for healthcare monitoring system, this research will focus more on how much
the rural women are benefitted out of the interventions under NRHM and to see the reasons
behind their not getting benefitted if that is the case. The results of the study will lead to the
understanding of the interventions made under NRHM, besides developing strategies for
effective intervention mechanisms if needed and understanding the issues faced by rural
women in availing the services.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The research makes an articulate attempt to focus on the following key objectives:
1. To assess the level of participation of women beneficiaries in community-based
monitoring of NRHM pertaining to Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha
2. To understand the extent of availability and accessibility of National Rural Health
Mission services to women beneficiaries of the selected GPs of Pipili Block in Puri
District of Odisha
3. To find out the challenges faced by women in managing community-based monitoring
system and describe the benefits received by women beneficiaries of Pipili Block in
Puri District
4. To study the relevance of socio demographic variables of Pipili Block in Puri District of
Odisha in the context of accessing National Rural Health Mission services

41
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

OPERATIONALISATION OF THE CONCEPTS

The operational definitions of the variables used in the study are mentioned below.
1. Rural Women Beneficiaries:
All women in the age group of 18-60 years from selected GPs of Pipili Block in Puri District
of Odisha to receive benefits under NRHM.
2. NRHM & NHM:
The Indian Government initiated the National Rural Health Mission in 2005 with the
intention of bringing reforms to the landscape of the country’s health care delivery
system. The Mission has made an attempt to amalgamate health with the indicators of
sound health such as sanitation, good quality drinking water, nutrition and hygiene. One
of the vital objectives of the National Rural Health Mission is to make the Indian systems
of medicine more universal so that they do not remain niche and limited (NRHM Mission
Document). The Union Cabinet vide its decision dated 1st May 2013, has approved the
launch of National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as a Sub-mission of an over-
arching National Health Mission (NHM), with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) being
the other Sub-mission of National Health Mission.16
3. Knowledge and Participation:
Knowledge of NRHM services under this research is defined as knowing about the aim,
objectives, facilities, grants available and special schemes under by women beneficiaries
of Pipili Block.
4. Accessibility:
Accessibility of NRHM services in this study is defined as the extent of approachability to
services of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Physicians and Specialists, Health
care centers, mobile units and emergency services like ambulance.
5. Availability:
This variable in the study is defined as the availability of immunization services, primary
health care, institutional deliveries, care for chronic illness, prevention of communicable
illness, health education, home based care, nutritious food and grants from NRHM
services.
6. Benefits from Services: Benefits from NRHM Services in this research are defined as the
advantages which have been received by women after the implementation of NRHM such
as free or subsidized medication, free or subsidized diagnostic services, free medical

42
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

advice, free or subsidized surgical interventions, grants and schemes or the improvement
of existing health care services.
7. Challenges:
Challenges faced by rural women beneficiaries in this study is defined as the issues and
difficulties the women beneficiaries face in availing NRHM Services such as challenges
faced in approaching ASHA, availability of ANM, condition of roads, awareness
programmes on health issues, family and community support for availing treatments,
quality of services at CHCs and PHCs and availability of medicines.

STUDYING THE VARIABLES

The researcher had made a systematic analysis of the following variables:
• Knowledge on NRHM services
• Availability and accessibility of NRHM services
• Benefits received from NRHM Services
• Challenges faced by women beneficiaries
• Socio Demographic variables namely:
• Age, Religion, Caste, Education, Source of Income, Size of the family etc

PROFILE OF THE STUDY AREA

To accomplish the objectives stated above, the research work was conducted in selected GPs
of Pipili Block in Puri District of Odisha. Puri is the 21st district in terms of size and 9th in terms
of population. Puri is the 9th urbanized district in state having 15.60 percent of its population
live in urban areas as against 16.69 percent of state’s population living in urban areas. Puri is
8th densely populated district in the state. Puri has 22nd rank in terms of sex ratio in the state.
The key indicators of health status of the district are captured below:
• Geographical Area of Puri District: 3079 sq kms.
• Population as per 2011 census: 16,98,730
• Total No. of Blocks: 11
• Total No. of Urban Areas: 4
• Total No. of G.P.: 268
• No. of uninhabited villages: 124

43
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

• Total No. of Villages: 1722

• No. of Tehsils: 11
• Total No. of Ayurvedic College: 1
• Total No. of Ayurvedic Dispensary: 7
• Total No. of Homoeopathic Dispensary: 9

IMPORTANT INDICATORS: (SOURCE: ANNUAL HEALTH SURVEY) 16

• Infant Mortality Rate – 75
• Maternal Mortality Rate (central zone) – 218
• Crude Birth Rate – 17.5
• Neo-natal Mortality Rate – 42
• Under Five Mortality Rate – 108
• Sex Ratio at Birth – 906
• Sex Ratio all ages – 966

MAJOR ONGOING PROGRAMMES

• Reproductive and Child Health (RMNCH+A)
• NRHM Initiatives & Immunization
• Integrated Disease Surveillance Programmes (IDSP)
• Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)
• National Vector borne disease control programme (NVBDCP)
• National Blindness Control Programme (NPCB)
• National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP)
• National Leprosy Eradication programme.(NLEP)
• District Mental Health Programme (DMHP)
• National programme for prevention and control of Cancer ,Diabetes, Cardiovascular
diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS)

MAJOR IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN & LAUNCHING OF NEW VACCINES 2017-18

• Introduction of JE (Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination Campaign) (27.11.17 – 31.12.17)
Target: 460479, Achievement: 336404 (73%)

44
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

• Introduction of MR (Measles Rubella Immunization Campaign) (29.01.18 – 06.04.18)

Target: 366507, Achievement: 362594 (99%)
• Pulse Polio Vaccination Campaign (02.04.18 – 04.04.18)
Target: 175882, Achievement: 176708 (100.47%)

SAMPLING DESIGN
The study was focused on women who have been living in these three GPs coming under Pipili
Block in Puri District for at least 2 years and who belong to the age group of 18-60 years.
Another criteria set for the study was that the name of women participants was registered in
the local ration card. The population of the study was the women beneficiaries of 3 Gram
Panchayats. This population is adopted from the total women beneficiaries of Pipili Block in
Puri District of Odisha who form the universe of the study.

Rural Women Name of the GP in Census Data Samples

Beneficiary Pipili Block of Puri 2011 Quota taken for
Categories District (Women) the Study
General Dandamukundapur 842 34 94
SC Dandamukundapur 32 3 15
General Lakshminarayanpur 281 28 36
SC Lakshminarayanpur 76 8 30
General Birapurusottampur 897 90 98
SC Birapurusottampur 15 2 5

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

- Women who have been living in these village Panchayats for at least 2 years
- Women who belong to the age group of 18-60 years
- Women whose names are registered in the local ration card

Exclusion Criteria
- Women who have psychological and neurological disorders which prevent them to
comprehend questions asked during the interview

45
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Ethical Considerations
The research adhered to the following ethical considerations:
• Obtained informed consent from participants besides keeping in mind the
participants’ honor, well-being and privacy
• Enlightened the participants about their right to cease participation in the research
sans providing any justification
• Safeguarded participants from gratuitous physical or mental agony, hurt, threat, or
deprivation
• The researcher shared the gathered data solely for academic intent and only with
people professionally linked with the gathered information
• The researcher focused on keeping the identity of the participants and the information
provided by them as classified

Tools for Data Collection

The researcher used a semi structured interview schedule for collecting the data. It was a 120
item tool developed by the researcher and validated by experts. The face validity of the tool
was established with the help of the experts who have proven expertise in the field of
research. Researcher conducted a pilot study using the tool developed and necessary changes
were made in the scoring pattern after consulting the experts. The researcher also conducted
focus group discussions with participants to have more clarity about the research area. The
researcher conducted 3 focus group discussions in three village Panchayats. The Focus group
discussion was focused on the general understanding of women in terms of the services
provided under NRHM in their Gram Panchayats.

Validation Procedures
Face validity of the tool was established by giving the material to five experts and then making
the necessary changes according to the suggestions provided by them. A pilot study was
conducted by the researcher administering the tool in the field and certain modifications in
terms of the scoring were made. It was found during the pilot study that 72 majority of the
women beneficiaries either had a tribal background or belonged to a scheduled caste and
hence, were unable to follow the four-point scale rating used by the researcher. The process

46
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

was time consuming and unwillingness of the women to participate in the study added to the
woes. The scaling was further changed to 2-point scale which was easy for the participants to
comprehend.

FIELD STUDY ANALYSIS

The research was undertaken in the following phases:
1. Pilot visits were made to the villages in order to be familiar with the local conditions and
also to build rapport with the people of the community. Initial focus group discussions
were held with the Panchayat members, ASHA workers and group of women as per their
availability. Purpose of the research was explained to the group and an initial consent was
sought.
2. The second phase of the research work revolved around the pilot study conducted with
30 participants.
3. Data collection for the main study was done during the third phase of the field work. A
quota of 215 participants was proposed for the study. The final data was collected from
278 participants. The unavailability of participants for the study was another major issue
during data collection. Since majority of them are agricultural laborers, the participants
were unavailable during the daytime

Tools Employed for Analysis of Data

The researcher coded and entered the data into SPSS software for analysis. Descriptive
statistics was implemented in order to explain about the variables i.e. mean, standard
deviation and frequency distribution. Pearson Correlation was used to find out about the
association of variables used in the study. Chi square test of association was done to see 73 if
knowledge about NRHM was associated with any of the socio demographic variables. Mann-
Whitney Test was used to compare the study variables between people who had heard about
NRHM and those who had not heard about the same. Mann-Whitney Test is a non parametric
equivalent of t-test. The Mann-Whitney Test was used because there were fewer participants
in one category compared to the number of participants in the other category

47
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Socio-Demographic Profile of the Study Area
The study results show that the age group of most of the participants of the study was
between 26 – 33 years (42.8%). All the 121 participants of the study follow Hinduism. SC
population forms a major part in these village Panchayats. Majority of the participants (71.9%)
are above poverty line (BPL). 84.9% of the participants belong to nuclear families. Majority of
the participants (80.9%) got married only after they became of marriageable age. Illiteracy is
not a major problem in the area as 63.3% of the participants are literate. 84.9% of participants
are Agriculture Laborers and out of 278 participants, 252 do not have any land. Majority of
the participants (93.5%) live in pucca houses. Electricity is available to majority of the
participants. When asked about the availability of toilets at their home, majority (98.2%)
answered in positive. Majority (87.8%) of the participants use hand pumps provided by the
Panchayat to avail drinking water. 77.3% participants have access to grocery and vegetable
shop near their house.

Accessibility of NRHM services to Women Beneficiaries

This part of the findings deals with the availability and accessibility of health systems and
health personnel to the participants. The results of the study show that the response from
the participants is mixed in terms of accessibility of Sub centre and Primary health centre. Sub
centre is considered as the first meeting point for all the health-related needs of the
community which is accessible to only 51.1% of participants. The Primary Health Centre (PHC)
is the second layer in the three tier system and is accessible to 61.2% of participants. Majority
of the people agreed to the availability of doctors at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) and the
Community Health Centre (CHC). The results show that ASHA workers’ visit to the households
is frequent for majority (70.5%) of participants. Majority (62.9%) opined that the ANM is
available in the sub centre. The study also reveals that 60.4% (168) of participants disagreed
to the frequent visit of ANM to their villages.

Challenges faced by women beneficiaries

The study findings show that 55% of women face challenges in approaching ASHA. 56.5%
(157) of women opined that ASHA is not available during emergencies. Majority of the
participants (60.4%) responded that ANM is not available in the sub centers. Lack of

48
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

ambulance services is another major challenge shared by 76.6% (213) participants. Majority
of the participants (68.7%) said that there are no programs for them on health issues. 195
(70.1%) participants were of the opinion that their family does not support them to go to
hospital for treatment. When asked about the support of community for hospital deliveries,
majority (64.7%) responded in positive. 55% of (153) women opined that the Government
hospitals do not provide good services. 181 participants (65.1%) responded that sufficient
beds are not provided in the PHC for patients. The findings of the study also show that there
is a lack of sufficient 125 medicines in all the three tiers of health systems. Majority of the
participants (66.9%) disagreed about the Panchayats taking initiatives in improving health
facilities. There are 66.9% participants who expressed interest in receiving NRHM benefits.

Benefits Received by Women

The study results show that only 37.4% (104) out 278 participants received the cash incentives
under Janani Suraksha Yojana. It is found that 37.4% participants had their delivery at
hospitals. There is no significant association between the age group and caste of people who
avail the benefits of this scheme. Majority (60.8 %) of the participants said that they received
assistance from ASHA. The intervention by ASHA for pregnant women was found to be
significant. According to 38.5% of participants, there has been major improvement in the
condition of sub centers after NRHM. According to 58.6% (163) participants the health
facilities have improved in the last five years. It was found that the women beneficiaries had
difficulty in availing the benefits of the scheme. The study shows that the services of
Anganwadi are effective in the sampled villages. Majority of them responded that their
children receive nutritious food from Anganwadi Centres.

ASSOCIATION OF STUDY VARIABLES AND ENTITLEMENTS UNDER NRHM

The study found significant association between caste and electricity at home and knowledge
about NRHM. There is no significant association between age, type of family, marital status
and knowledge about NRHM. The mean score on ‘Knowledge’, between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ group
was found to be significantly different (Mann-Whitney U=3899.0, P=.006). In a similar way,
the mean scores of ‘Availability and Accessibility’ between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ group was also found
significantly different (Mann-Whitney U=1696.0, P=>.001). A similar test was administered to
assess the difference between ‘Challenges’ and ‘Benefits’ variables. The mean score on

49
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

‘Challenges’, between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ group was found significantly different (Mann-Whitney
U=2032.0, P=.001) and the mean score on ‘Benefits’, between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ group was also
found significantly different (Mann-Whitney U=1908.5, P=.001). The correlation between the
knowledge scores and challenges scores was found significant (r = .246, P>.001). The
correlation between the knowledge scores and benefits scores was significant (r = .705,
P>.001). The correlation between the knowledge scores and availability and accessibility
scores was significant (r = .735, P>.001).

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The study recommends initiation of programs for skill building of Accredited Social Health
Activists (ASHA) since they play a vital role in National Rural Health Mission. Awareness
programs at massive level are required to enable the community to understand each and
every component of NRHM. The role of the health staff at Sub Centre, Primary Health Centre
and Community Health Centre ought to be performed effectively to avoid delays in the
provision of services to the people during emergencies. Monitoring and evaluation
mechanisms need to be strengthened at all levels with clearly designed indicators and means
of verification.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

The results of the study could positively influence the policy makers to develop strategies in
designing programme deliveries. It will further help the Panchayats to strengthen their
capabilities and understand the role of local self-governing bodies at the village level in a
better way. The research could help the NGOs working in the area to design intervention
strategies required to strengthen the outlook of people towards Government programs. The
study has its implication to social work since it promotes understanding of the grass root
realities of any government programme. Social work methods like Social Group Work,
Community Organization and Social Action can be effectively practiced in the intervention
programme. Effective intervention strategies can be developed by using the Asset Based
Community Development, Locality Development and Social Action models of community
organization.

50
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Since the study was limited to three village Panchayats the results cannot be generalized.
Rapport building at the community and hesitation of women participants to interact with the
researcher in the initial stages was also another limitation of the study. Lacking more
statistical analysis in the research is found as another limitation. Non participation of
Panchayat Leaders was one of the major challenges for the researcher while collecting the
data.

SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Further research can be undertaken by incorporating more regions of the state which may
give a comprehensive understanding and generalized perspective to the topic. Studies can be
incorporated by taking samples from both, backward and forward districts of the state to
make comparative analysis of the situations. Action researches can be facilitated in this area
where an in-depth pre test, intervention and post test could be conducted, which may have
more acceptability and authenticity. A comparative analysis of states could be conducted to
understand the level of community in to the programme. A mixed research methodology
could be adopted to have both qualitative and quantitative inputs.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
The research findings show that the impact of NRHM is average in terms of its availability and
accessibility among the rural women. There is a need to strengthen the grass root level
interventions in terms of strengthening the sub centers and involvement of the Gram
Panchayat in fulfilling the health mission objectives of the country. The NRHM services do
reach the villages of the country but a holistic approach in terms of incorporating all the
objectives of the programme and its implementation is required. There is a need to
strengthen the capacity of ASHA, ANM and other health professionals. A major gap is found
in the area of intervention of village Panchayats in terms of promoting health, hygiene and
safe drinking water. The study found that NRHM has succeeded in reaching to the rural
communities. Participants acknowledged to have faced challenges in a few areas in terms of
approachability and availability of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Auxiliary Nurse
and Mid wife (ANM) at the village and sub centre level. Quality of facilities provided by
Government hospitals was another challenge for the participants. Lack of initiatives of the

51
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Panchayat in the improvement of health of the village was found as another challenge for the
people. Provision of nutritious food to pregnant women and children was another area of
challenge faced by the participants. Majority of the participants have not showed any interest
in availing NRHM services. When asked further, they clarified that the quality and delay in
availing services force them to go to private hospitals for treatment. They also discussed that
the PHC has no sufficient beds for the patients. The study results further show that the mean
scores of ‘Knowledge’, ‘Availability and Accessibility’, ‘Challenges’ and ‘Benefits’ are
significantly different. A significant correlation was observed between the total scores of
knowledge, challenges, benefits and availability and accessibility.

ENDNOTES
1. Chatterjee M. Indian women: their health and economic productivity, World Bank
Discussion paper 109. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990.
2. Desai S. Gender inequalities and demographic behavior, India. New York: The Population
Council, 1994
3. Horowitz B, Madhu K. Family life - the unequal deal. In: K Madhu, R Vanita (Eds). In search
of answers: Indian women's voices from Manushi, London . India Registrar General: India
Registrar General, 1992.
4. World Bank. Improving women's Health in India. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1996.
5. Evaluation Study of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 7 States web source:
[Link]
6. Jacob, K. S. (2010, December 29). NRHM: addressing the challenges. The Hindu. Retrieved
from [Link] opinion/lead/nrhm-addressing- the-challenges/article
[Link]
7. Deoki, N. (2007). A rapid appraisal of functioning of ASHA under NRHM in Cuttack, Orissa.
Retrieved from website: [Link] [Link]/pdf/ RAHI-I Reports/Cuttack/[Link]
8. Kumar, K., Sankhe, L., Singh, P. K., Tomar, J., & Baijal, S. (2009). An analysis of utilization
of health services under national rural health mission: A case study of selected district of
Uttar Pradesh, India. Retrieved from Available at SSRN: [Link]
9. Parveen, S., & Abhijit, D. (2011). Understanding Women’s Perception of Quality of Care:
Implications. New Delhi : Centre for Health and Social Justice.

52
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

10. Manish, K. S., Singh, J. V., Reema, K., & Khanna, A. (2010). Factors influencing utilization
of ASHA services under NRHM in relation to maternal health in rural Lucknow. Indian
Journal of Community Medicine, 35(3), 414–419. Retrieved from [Link]
[Link]/pmc
11. Paul, V. [Link]. (2011). India: Towards universal health coverage 2. TheLancet, 377(9762),
332-33. Retrieved from [Link] [Link]/docview
12. Bhatia, J. C. (1993). Levels and causes of maternal mortality in southern India. Studies in
family planning, 310-318.
13. Vora, K. S. (2012). Implementation of Janani Suraksha Yojana and other maternal health
policies in two Indian states: Predictors of maternal health service utilization among poor
rural women
14. Rani, M., Bonu, S., & Harvey, S. (2008). Differentials in the quality of antenatal care in
India. International journal for quality in health care, 20(1), 62-71.
15. Sharma, V., Mohan, U., Das, V., & Awasthi, S. (2012). Utilization pattern of antenatal care
in Lucknow under National Rural Health Mission. Indian Journal of Community Health,
24(1)
16. NRHM Mission Document[Link]
[Link]
17. Annual Health Survey, Puri 2019,[Link]

53
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2021, Pp. 54-58
ISSN 0976-0148 (Online) 0976-013X (Print)
DOI: [Link]

Sorting Responsible Business Practices in Fast Fashion:

A Case Study of Zara

Srirang K Jha* and S. Veeramani**

ABSTRACT
Fast fashion is characterized by a well-orchestrated obsolescence of clothing lines in shorter
span of time so that the people crave for newer products every now and then and the retailers
compete with each other to provide the latest designer wear at the shortest possible
duration. The companies involved in fast fashion take advantage of quick response
manufacturing methods, cheaper alternatives like polyester and nylon, and cheap labour in
sweatshop, especially in emerging markets having minimal adherence to labour standards set
out by International Labour Organization. Thus, the profits margins in fast fashion are huge at
the cost of collateral damage to environment and exploitation of labour. Consumers driven
by latest fashion trends patronize fast fashion all over the world without realizing that they
are inadvertently undermining the efforts to accomplish the sustainable development goals
by 2030. Indeed, fast fashion and sustainability are dichotomous. Hence, when Zara, the
market leader in fast fashion, announces its plan to make clothes with 100% sustainable
fabric, the critics naturally view it with suspicion as yet another marketing gimmick or a well
thought out public relations exercise to woo the consumers who are equally interested in fast
fashion and being an evangelist in the ongoing eco-friendly movement across the world,

* Associate Professor & Head, General Management & International Business Area, Apeejay
School of Management, New Delhi, India E-mail: [Link]@[Link]
** Assistant Professor, Centre for Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi,
India E-mail: veeramanis@[Link]

54
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

which is no less than a fad. This case study examines the responsible business practices at
Zara to figure out how far fast fashion can contain its adverse impact on the environment.

KEYWORDS: Fast Fashion, Sustainability, Responsible Business Practices, Zara

INTRODCUTION
Zara is market leader in fast fashion. Over the years, it has mastered the arts and science of
providing whatever the consumers want in shortest possible time. Zara takes just two weeks
to bring a designer clothing line from studio to its own front stores. No other competitor has
been able to match its turnaround time so far. The fashion brand, which is owned by Inditex,
has almost 3,000 stores in 96 countries, with new stock arriving every week to keep
consumers coming back for more (Jorndan, 2021). The first Zara store was set up in 1975 at a
small place called A Coruna in Galicia, Spain. Since its inception, the company swears by its
core values i.e., beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability. Zara has tried to live up to its
core value of sustainability by means of company’s stated policies towards water, climate
change and energy, biodiversity and above all, closing the loop.

Zara has translated its commitments towards sustainability into reality by reorienting its
operational strategies, creating eco-friendly stores, and drafting and implementing robust
policy frameworks to ensure that environmental issues are not compromised at any cost. Zara
has accomplished 100% eco-efficient stores in 2020. The company does not use plastic bags
in any of its stores. All the Zara stores have containers for collection of used clothes for the
purpose of recycling. The company has also implemented one of the best wet processes in its
supply chain as part of its zero discharge commitments. The company is using 100% certified
forest-friendly fibers as part of its canopy commitments. The company wants to attain zero
waste on all its locations and facilities, use of 100% cellulosic fibers, and 100% of all packaging
materials collected for reuse or recycling in our supply chain by 2023. Further, the company
has set an ambitious target of attaining 80% of renewable energy in all its facilities
(headquarters, logistics and stores), 100% sustainable cotton (organic, BCI and/or recycled
cotton), 100% recycled polyester, 100% sustainable linen by 2025. All the designers of Zara
have been trained and specialized in circularity. All the initiatives aimed at sustainability taken
by Zara are quite reassuring so far as the responsible business practices of Zara are concerned.

55
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Responsible Business Practices at Zara

Zara demonstrates its commitment towards all the stakeholders. Table 1 provides the
measures adopted by Zara to protect the interests of various stakeholders. Continuous
exchange of ideas and transparency are the essential principles that govern Zara’s relations
with its stakeholders (Inditex, 2015). The company has a well-structured mechanism to ensure
compliance to its corporate social responsibility policy in terms of ethics committee, audit and
control committee, social advisory board, code of conduct and responsible practices, code of
conduct for manufacturers and suppliers, and disclosure (Inditex, 2015). Indian arm of Zara is
equally committed to global best practices in responsible business adopted by the parent
company Inditex (Zara, 2015).

Zara in India focuses on lives and livelihood augmentation as part of its social commitments.
In Indian context, Zara is involved in promoting education, employment enhancing vocation
skills and livelihood enhancement projects especially among children, women, elderly and the
differently abled in addition to promoting gender equality, empowering women and senior
citizens, and undertaking measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and
economically backward groups (Zara, 2015). Zara measures impact of all its social initiatives
on a regular basis through a number of objective methods including the London
Benchmarking Group (LBG) measurement methodology.

Some of the responsible business practices have been noticed even by the critics. For
example, Zara is successfully running ‘closing the loop’ programme which enables the
customers to deposit their old clothes at any of the stores across the world for recycling
purpose besides using recycled bags (Dockrill, 2020). Disclosure and reporting of Zara
regarding corporate social responsibility and sustainability are also commendable (Dockrill,
2020). Zara is known for publishing report on its suppliers in terms of forced labour, gender
equality, freedom of association, etc. (Dockrill, 2020).

CRITIQUE
A close look at Zara’s responsible business practices however reveal that not everything is
fine with the company. Business model of Zara itself is detrimental to sustainability. Zara
encourages as well as induces its customers world over to go for unmindful consumption by

56
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

offering latest designs almost every fortnight. Such a consumption pattern results in
phenomenal profits for Zara but harms the planet earth irreparably. The brand releases an
incredible 24 trend-led collections every year, 500 designs a week and almost 20,000 per year,
which in turn leads consumers to see their clothes as disposable and adds to even more waste
from the garment industry that ends up in landfill (Jordan, 2021). Indeed, Zara’s fast fashion
business model can never be environmentally friendly as manufacturing so many new
garments create huge amounts of waste every year. This goes some way to explain why the
average American is estimated to throw away 37kg of clothes each year, 85% of which will
end up in landfill or be burned (Jordan, 2021). Dockrill (2020) has listed following issues that
expose the magnificent responsible business practices edifice of Zara:
“Although Zara has set an absolute target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
generated from its own operations and supply chain, there is no evidence it is on track
to meet its targets. Further, there is no evidence that it minimizes textile waste when
manufacturing its products.
Zara has made little or no progress on payment of living wages across its supply chain.
For a company with such a huge profit margin, this simply is not good enough.
Half of its final stage of production is undertaken in Spain, a medium risk country for
labour abuse, and the brand received a score of 51-60% in the Fashion Transparency
Index.
Zara does use wool, leather, and exotic animal hair and there is no evidence that it
traces any animal products to the first stage of production.”

CONCLUSION
Zara has certainly made a mark as socially responsible business house. Yet, a lot is desired
from the market leader in the fast fashion industry. The company needs to focus on improving
the labour standards across its supply chain and bring in operational efficiency in
implementing its corporate social responsibility and sustainability policies.

REFERENCES
Dockrill, M. (2020). How ethical is Zara? Good on You: [Link]
is-zara/

57
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Inditext. (2015). Corporate social responsibility policy:

[Link]
197b-ec03-7ea6-757c-df7406262cdc
Jordan, D. (2021). Is Zara ethical and sustainable? [Link]
ethical-or-sustainable/
Zara. (2015). Corporate social responsibility policy of Inditex Trent Retail India Private Limited:
[Link]

Table 1: Measures adopted by Zara to Protect Interests of the Stakeholders [Adapted from
Inditext (2015)]

58
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Journal of Management & Public Policy

Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2021, Pp. 59-66
ISSN 0976-0148 (Online) 0976-013X (Print)
DOI: [Link]

Conversations around Green Products

Barun S. Mitra*, Charudutt Panigrahi**, S. Veeramani***

Umesh Rishi****, V. Selvarajan*****and Srirang K Jha******

ABSTRACT
This article is based on candid conversations around the perceptions of Indian consumers
about green products. Contributors of this piece were approach for an e-mail-based interview
on their experience of having used green products. The interview questions revolved around
the attributes, usage, weaknesses and benefits of the green products. Besides, their opinion
was solicited on the factors that inhibited or augmented the propagation of green products.
The contributors also shared their views on the role of the corporate, the government and
the community in promoting green products in India. Contributors of this piece, mentioned
in alphabetical order, come from varied background and they aptly reflect divergent thinking.
Only nominal changes have been made in the interview transcripts to maintain the essence
of the opinion of the contributors. As there are few researches on the Indian consumers’
perception about green products, this article is likely to ignite a wider public discourse.
Considering the significance of green products in ensuring sustainability, it is imperative that

* Commentator on Public Affairs based in New Delhi, India

** President, FIDR, Gurugram, India
*** Assistant Professor, Centre for Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
**** Market Intelligence Analyst, Perfetti Van Melle, India
***** Founder, Green Circle based in Bengaluru, India
******Associate Professor and Head, General Management Area, Apeejay School of
Management, New Delhi, India E-mail: [Link]@[Link]

59
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

such issues take centre stage in public debate at all levels. No conclusions have been drawn
purposefully so that the readers can develop their own perspective and plan their action to
patronize and promote green products to foster sustainability. The conversations around
green products featured in this article have been meticulously curated by Dr Srirang K Jha,
who is deeply interested in the issues revolving around ethics, corporate strategy and public
policy.

KEYWORDS: Green Products, Green Consumerism, Sustainability, India

Please share your experience of using green products? In case you have not used any green
product, what could be the possible reasons?

Barun S, Mitra (BSM): We rarely buy a product just because it is claimed to be "green", but
because it's preferred functionalities. The most common green product I have used is the
khadi fabric, which typically uses organic dyes. Or the more energy efficient refrigerators and
air-conditioning or automobiles.

Charudutt Panigrahi (CP): Have used cooking stove (without emission) in the low-income
communities in India.

S. Veeramani (SV): Yes, I have decent experience of using green products since from the day
one in which I learnt to save environment. Hail from village area I used to mostly use green
products for many years till I moved to city. The cotton bags or bags made of jute used for
shopping and all, and mostly the plastics bags/ carry bags were not encouraged by the
villagers due to social and culture bound idea of using one single cotton or jute bag for
maximum period. And I have hardly used any plastics materials or related products because
there was no necessity and nothing called demand for plastics and related materials especially
for the day-to-day activities.

60
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

Umesh Rishi (UR): Depends on industry to industry and case to case basis, if I give example
of FMCG Packaging, have used a lot of green products like Recycled PET for Jars & Bottles,
Corrugated Boxes made up of recycled raw materials i.e., Testliner etc.

V. Selvarajan (VS): From tooth paste to dinner, I use many green products. They are very well
available.

In your opinion, what are the attributes of green products?

BSM: Efficiency in manufacturing, and lower environmental footprint. And better

functionality, and convenience.

CP: Environment compliant, low emission, using renewable energy

SV: That which doesn't harm environment, or minimal in ecological damage, that which leaves
minimal carbon footprints. That which doesn't or least add to global warming.

UR: Environmentally friendly.

VS: Bio-degradable materials are in my opinion is need of the hour which have less impact /
cause to produce pollution. Over all eco – friendly as the eco system is important for survival.
And the industry people must follow sustainable model while producing. And finally sensitive
towards environment is essential part of life because there is nothing called life without clean
environment.

In your view, what are the benefits of green products?

BSM: Fundamentally, green products are just a different label for a new generation product,
since most new products that enter the market are more efficient, less energy/water/
resource intensive. Typically, they have greater features and advantages over the earlier
generation products in the same category.

61
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

CP: Contributes to the life of the planet.

SV: Cost effective, maintenance effective too, basic support system such as water, air saved.
And as health is wealth – which starts from the environmental health only because human
can’t imagine a life without clean environment. Business firms must be sensitive on this
matter.

UR: For environment – its environmentally friendly. For company – it contributes to their
environmental initiatives.

VS: Reduces depletion of natural resources, Controls harm to health and environment,
minimizes carbon footprints, delays global warming.

What, according to you, are the weaknesses of the green products?

BSM: Because of the exotic green label, the prices of certain products are marked
substantially higher than the conventional products. Organic food is a good example, where
despite claims to lower cost of production, the market price is typically 50-100% more than
the conventional ones. Consequently, the organic food segment has not been able to grow
beyond its small niche in most countries.

CP: Technology is still nascent.

SV: Lack of confidence among the consumers about green products, The supply side are weak
in delivering the right green products, there are some handling issues as suddenly using words
such as green products may confuse the minds of consumers. And green has become more
marketeering word and the real sense of green products and usage yet to arrive.

UR: High cost, for instance, using recyclable PET for Jars increases reduces your margins, as
going green entails a high cost here. You may think why high cost when its recycled raw
materials i.e., rPET, but the fact is that in India we do not have this technology & consistent
grade of raw materials for finished good production.

62
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

VS: (Lack of) availability, economies of scale, acceptance, and awareness.

In your opinion, what are the factors that discourage people from buying or using green
products?

BSM: High price, less variety and limited access. Along with confusion over labels.

CP: High price. Also, consumers do not see much utility in the green products.

SV: Some of the issues with green products are short deliveries besides being perishable in
nature. Green products are generally not user friendly, and they lack quick business
processing. Also, there is lack of confidence among consumers when it comes to green
products. I believe, green products can’t completely replace the conventional materials. The
standard set for green products is still not up to the mark.

UR: Cost, accessibility, service levels.

VS: Lack of awareness, callousness, lack of farsightedness. The Government doesn't play a
pivotal role. This situation is changing but the process is a bit slow. Generally eco-friendly
products, organic edibles and chemical free materials are not available in abundance.

What, according to you, can motivates people to buy and use green products?

BSM: Green products need to break out of the high value, low volume niche market mindset,
and aspire to become mass market products. Cost and convenience can be game changer for
promoting green products in the country.

CP: Good price point, product features and good after sales service can certainly motivate
people to go for green products in India. People must see value in the green product so that
they can consistently patronize them.

63
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

SV: Importance of eco systems, showing the importance of environment for human survival,
clean air and water possible only when we shift to green products. Government agencies by
activism can motivate people to adopt green products. Business concerns can widely reach
out to the consumers to tell them about significance and utility of green products. And civil
society must take a leadership role in motivating people to adopt the green products.

UR: Govt regulations, subsidies, innovation, affordable pricing and availability may motivate
people to buy and use green products.

VS: Users are the best advertisers. Eco-friendly lifestyle can be replicated by more individuals,
if social organisations and government emphasize the impact through 3 'C's namely ACTION,
AWARENESS and ADVOCACY, people will be drawn towards the green products.

In your opinion, what value people may seek in green products before buying or using?

BSM: Utility and cost-effectiveness.

CP: Price, product quality and utility.

SV: Eco-friendliness for human survival.

UR: Depends on product to product and country to country, in India we do not pay more for
going green product, while in EU people will usually pay more as they think of their social
responsibility.

VS: People generally prioritize the impact on health, affordability and environmental concern.

In your view, what should the manufacturers do to promote green products?

BSM: Manufacturers could desist from stressing and stretching the novelty and greenness of
their product, and instead focus on how the green products are a part of continuous
effort at product improvement. Rather than the high margins of profit and low volume

64
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

characteristic of a niche market, manufacturers need to think of reaching out to the mass
market, with high volume and low profit margin.

CP: Innovation, invest in R&D and affordable pricing.

SV: Widely reach consumers and society at par with reach of the conventional products.
Collaborate with government and NGOs to promote eco-consciousness.

UR: Market well

VS: Producers look at the economies of scales. If cost of production is high, price will be
higher. It's therefore difficult to expect producer to promote green products. Again,
upgradation of technology may add to costs. At the maximum, branding products as eco-
friendly may help. But the corporate leaders must address these issues and try out solutions
rather than getting bogged down by constraints.

In your opinion, what should the government do to promote green products?

BSM: Government should not be in the business of promoting green products or any
other product. The government should rather focus on ensuring an open and competitive
market.

CP: Provide more subsidies.

SV: The government must ensure strict compliance with environmental protection laws and
international treaties and protocols. Besides, the government also needs to sensitize society
and consumers by wider campaign on environmental protection.

UR: Subsidies are the only way out at the moment considering the unaffordable prices of most
of the green products.

65
 Journal of Management & Public Policy, Vol. 12, No.2, June 2021

VS: Government can make green certification mandatory. Tax breaks may help. Also, the
government should incentivize organic farming. Above all, subsidies on green products can
be an absolute game changer in Indian markets.

What, according to you, should the communities do to promote green products?

BSM: Communities need to adopt cleaner, greener and efficient living, by reducing their own
ecological footprint. For instance, by sorting, recycling and reusing whatever is possible. For
instance, many households in Dwarka are generating organic fertilisers from their kitchen
waste.

CP: More usage of such products and value dissemination.

SV: Community must actively join hand with state and business concerns in getting the green
products promoted, reach wider people and end users. Communities can make the
consumers really king by making the environment as their divine guardian. Environment is
mother we are only safe on its lap.

UR: More awareness will lead to higher adoption of green products

VS: I think I as an environmental activist am already encouraging people to switch over to

green products. It's a social cause. The change is happening but slowly. I will reiterate the 3
'C's namely ACTION, AWARENESS and ADVOCACY.

66