Swachh Bharat Mission – An overview of its impact on knowledge and practices on sanitation, hygiene and waste disposal among general population in selected villages of Belagavi, Karnataka

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives: Sanitation and hygiene practices are inevitably an important component of everyone’s life. This is certainly a major public health concern in India and as a part of this, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), a national level cleanliness programme launched by Government of India in 2014 which has influenced the lifestyle and behaviour change among general population. The study aims to understand the impact of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on knowledge and practices among general population.
Methods: A descriptive study was carried out with a sample size of 300 in Kangrali Village for a period of 3 months. Convenient Sampling technique was used to get the desired sample size. A semi structured interview questionnaire was used to analyse the knowledge and practices. Descriptive and inferential statistics was calculated and SPSS 21.0 version software was used for analysis of data.
Results: The study results revealed that 210 (70%) had access to household toilet, 114 (38%) still preferred open defecation, 272 (90.6%) cleaned house floor only with water. 231 (77%) had access to community bin. Interestingly, almost 298 (99.3%) people were aware about Swachh Bharat Mission. As far as knowledge was concerned, around 105 (35%) has good knowledge, 97 (32.3%) had average knowledge and 98 (32.6%) had poor knowledge regarding sanitation, hygiene, and waste disposal. On the other hand, majority 156 (52%) showed poor practices, 81 (27%) good practices and 63 (21%) with average practices related to sanitation, hygiene, and waste disposal. Age, gender, religion, type of family, occupation and socioeconomic status had significant association with knowledge.
Conclusion: The results showed that though people had awareness regarding Swachh Bharat Mission, their practices were not healthy as far as the responses were recorded. In order to overcome this, proper educational model or awareness programme is required to educate the people and make them understand the importance of Swachh Bharat Mission which is one of the Government’s important and ambitious programme. The health of people is very important and to achieve optimal health, knowledge and practices related to hygiene and sanitation is of prime importance.