Initiatives to improve health and sanitation

The village of Hirapur is situated 15 km from the district headquarters. There are 115 families and its total population is 980. The youth facilitators are Mr Satish Parmar and Ms Bhawana Bairagi.

Earlier only 25% of the households in the village had toilets. The boys talked to the villagers and made them aware of the health and social hazards of open defecation. Through continuous motivation, the youth were able to convince the households to get a toilet constructed in their homes. Samarthan supported the Panchayats to access the Total Sanitation Campaign funds for construction of toilets in the village for the BPL households. The youth in the village kept a vigil on the distribution of funds by the Panchayat to the BPL families for construction of toilets. Now nearly 100% of families have toilets and these are used regularly.

The incidence of malarial infection has reduced. Earlier the villagers allowed animal dung to accumulate in front of their houses which led to breeding of mosquitoes. During the monthly meetings of the adolescent boys, they thought of taking some action on this issue. The boys made went house to house and made them aware of the harms of such practice. Slowly the adolescent boys group could convince people to keep the animal dung in the field. The vessels containing animal dung were shifted to the fields.

The adolescent boys group was also instrumental in ensuring that the Deendayal cards were issued to the BPL families. They raised the issue in the Gram Sabha and found that no one knew about the card. The Youth Facilitator explained to the Gram Sabha and told them about the benefits that can be availed with this card. The Sarpanch then asked the people to apply for the card. The boys obtained the BPL list and made each BPL family aware of the benefits of the card. Almost everyone have now applied for and most of them have received the card.

The boys group made the people aware of the Janani Suraksha scheme. Earlier the people had to pay for the transport themselves. The boys informed the ASHA and motivated her. The people no longer pay for transport and the ASHA accompanies them. Earlier they got no benefits and even ended up paying the hospital staff but now they get money since the ASHA ensures that they get the grant.

The villagers were equally not very concerned about family planning. During the training of the youth facilitators, it was decided that the families and youth groups would be convinced about using contraceptives and on family planning. Both the boys groups and girls groups asked the ASHA who accompanied the girls in making the villagers aware about family planning. The girls also targeted the families of landless labourers. Ever since the intervention started, 10 women in the village were finally convinced and they have undertaken the family planning operation.