Publication:

Genetic demographic profile of two endogamous sub-populations of Rellis

Background Relli caste group was chosen for the present population genetic study, as it is one of the scheduled caste groups. The present work was designed to be a descriptive study mainly aiming at unveiling a precise population genetic profile of Relli caste.

Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was done among 428 Relli families belonging to two subsets (Relli-I: 208; Relli-II: 220) residing in different localities of Visakhapatnam city. The demographic information regarding age, occupation, economic status, marriage patterns and reproductive events were collected. The data was processed and analyzed by using software SPSS V.19.

Results The age composition in both the subgroups of Rellis indicates a high proportion of children and a low proportion of older people which are the common characteristics of a rapidly growing population. The overall consanguinity is more among Relli-II (42.3%) than among the Relli-I (36.9). The highest mean marital distance is recorded in Relli-I (37.9 km). The mean ages at marriage, first conception, and menopause are found to be slightly higher among the Relli-I. Whereas, the mean ages of menarche and last conception were higher in Relli-II. Tubectomy records the highest frequency in Relli-II group and vasectomy registered the highest frequency among Relli-I group.

Conclusions The demographic and reproductive structure of the Rellis in the present study indicates that observations made with regard to most of the variables fall well within the ranges observed for other caste populations of Andhra Pradesh.