Impact of Swachh Bharat Mission on open-air defecation-free status in villages under the rural field practice area of a private medical college in Kanchipuram: A Cross-sectional study
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Abstract
Background:
Eradicating open-air defecation (OAD) by promoting the use of toilets in each household is one of the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), also known as the "Clean India Mission," which was launched by the Indian government in 2014. This study was planned to monitor the progress of the mission, five years after its implementation, with the objectives of assessing household knowledge of SBM, determining the number of households that have constructed sanitary latrines under the mission, and estimating the prevalence of for practicing OAD and not utilizing the SBM toilets.
Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 440 households (n = 440) in 10 villages of rural field practice area of a private medical college in Kanchipuram. Each household (one participant from each household) was the sampling unit and were selected by simple random sampling using the Probability Proportion to Size (PPS) method. Data was collected using Semi-structured questionnaire.
Results: Almost 78% (n = 343) of the participants were aware that the government was constructing toilets but among them only 8.6% (n = 38) knew that it was built under the SBM. Among the study participants 95.5% (n = 420) of the households have sanitary latrines in their house and 55.9% (n = 246) constructed toilets under the SBM scheme. The prevalence of open-air defecation (OAD) was found to be 45.9% (n =202). Pits filling up quickly (42.3%), feeling uncomfortable (17.5%), inadequate toilet size (8.9%), and combination of the above (9.3%) were the reasons for not utilizing SBM toilets. Reasons for practicing OAD were 130 (29.5%) comfort as the main reason, while 52 (11.8%) used for other purposes like storage, 20 (4.5%) reported no sanitary latrines at home. Association was found between age (p = 0.000), education (p = 0.003), socioeconomic status (p = 0.001), and number of family members (p-value = 0.002) with practicing of OAD.
Conclusion: SBM knowledge was low among the participants. Though households-built toilets under SBM missions, there were reasons for not using them. Despite five years of SBM success, many households in the study area still practice OAD. Reinforcement is needed in improving sanitation in the study area.