Awareness and IEC Exposure on Sanitation/Hygiene among the Rural People

Poor sanitation is one of the most embarrassments of the world. Open defecation, cheap sanitation and hygiene practices claim the health and lives of human beings and creates an unfriendly environment. Nations are today taking up many efforts to encourage people to improve their sanitation/hygiene behavior. The Government of India has deployed many programs to make people follow good sanitation practices. Yet the eradication of open defecation and creating hygienic practices is still a challenge. The aim of this study was to identify the awareness level and exposure to the Information Education Communication (IEC) tools on sanitation and hygiene among the rural people. The result exposes that the awareness level on sanitation and hygiene is low and that the usage of toilets is extremely less compared to the statistics. People's behavior on sanitation is not changed. Their exposure to IEC is very minimal and so they could not recall sanitation messages. The study has also revealed that, the government initiatives are mostly concentrated on construction of toilets rather than on awareness creation/behavior change. IEC utilization by the agencies is mostly irrelevant, non-suitable and old. Appropriate and effective IEC tools and methods for different target groups of people like students, women, children and elders are important.