Design of an Awareness Model to Develop Proper Sanitary Habit Among the Rural People of Jharkhand

Abstract

Rural areas of India represent most of the population of this country. As per the census report of India 2011, about 70% Indians live in rural areas. Jharkhand is a newly formed state (2000) in eastern India that belongs to EAG. It has 24 districts among which an ethnographic study has been done in three districts, namely Saraikela-Kharsawan, Dhanbad and Godda. More precisely, the study has been conducted to understand the sanitary system in these areas. The research data has been gathered through observation and interviews with village people. It has been noticed that people of these villages are using open areas such as field, riverbank, forest and mountain areas for sanitary purpose. Though there are different schemes from Government of India for clean and healthy sanitisation (e.g. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) however, the people of these villages are not changing their sanitary habit because they are traditionally used to it. Also, they have many cultural and social notions behind it. According to their perspective sanitisation in open area is water saving, time saving and as a whole money saving. So, they are not willing to change their habit. Eventually it has been found that though there is toilet but they are reluctant to use it for sanitisation. Therefore, a lack of awareness on hygiene and health is prevailing in these areas in spite of government initiatives. According to the Ministry of Rural Development of India, rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation. So, it can be said that there is a need to create awareness among rural people of India to socially transform India. Motivation needs to be spread among the people of rural villages to use proper sanitisation system, which is lacking in the present scenario. As the existing awareness programme arranged by the government is not effective in these villages a new model of awareness programme needs to be designed. The design model must be more communicative as well as interactive with the rural people of India.