Background and Aim:Cancer patients and survivors need to cope with many physical and emotional stressors. This cross-sectional study compared the perceived stress, coping, quality of life (QOL), and hopelessness between cancer patients and cancer survivors and examined the relationship of perceived stress with coping, QOL, and hopelessness in cancer patients and cancer survivors.Materials and Methods:Using a purposive sampling technique, this study was conducted in the Medical Oncology Department of a multi-specialty tertiary care teaching hospital between February and May 2018. Thirty participants (15 cancer patients and 15 cancer survivors) in the age range of 30–60 years took part in the study. Both groups were assessed by the following instruments: Perceived Stress Scale, Coping Checklist, Quality of Life-Cancer, and Beck Hopelessness Scale.Results:Cancer patients are using maladaptive coping strategies and experiencing psychological distress with reduced QOL than cancer survivors. Furthermore, hopelessness was positively correlated with QOL among cancer survivors.Conclusions:Cancer patients are found to be distressed and hopeless with significant reductions in their QOL.

Jainism is one of the oldest religions of India. Since the founding of the religion, Jainism has given prominence to Sallekhana, death by ritual fasting facing north, as exemplified in the deaths of Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta Maurya. The controversy whether this religious form of starvation is related to suicide is debated since the time of the early Jain teachers. History is replete with instances where kings and warriors who have failed in their duty punish themselves for their sin and welcome death as expiation. Such starvation deaths are referred to as vadakirutthal (literally, facing north) and become quite prevalent during the Sangam age, probably copied from the Jain culture. The present-day thinking on Sallekhana needs to be considered here in more detail which should be brought to the knowledge of current-day psychiatrists. These ideas are relevant to psychiatric counseling of the ordinary people and would be very useful if included in the armamentarium of the mental health professionals.

The effectiveness and efficiency of the agricultural extension system in India can be improved by motivating and mobilizing the rural and tribal folk towards sustainable productivity. It requires efficient and innovative approaches in order to organize and strengthen the farming community in an effective way for better participation, adoption and empowerment. A sample of 500 tribal families were selected on stratified random sampling procedure from four village panchayats and seven hamlets based on purposive random sampling method. A socioeconomic survey was carried out by using PRA techniques to analyze the tribal scenario of East Godavari district. Major problems were identified and agro-based interventions were proposed suitable for the selected tribal area. After conducting an externally funded extension based DBT project for a period of three years (2009 to 2012) and implementing the interventions in tribal area of East Godavari district, it was found that there is a great scope to suggest suitable innovative and appropriate approaches for tribal and rural population. Suitable innovative extension strategies were suggested for bringing a desirable change in improving the livelihood of rural and tribal societies towards productivity and sustainability.