An awareness-raising programme designed to educate the community about the need for safe sanitation and good hygiene practices.
The Jalaun District, in Uttar Pradesh, is amongst the 108 poorest districts in India. Many of the poorest families are denied access to basic amenities, such as safe drinking water or adequate sanitation. This causes people to live in the most inhuman conditions, with poor families walking miles to collect water which is unsafe to drink and causes water-borne illnesses.
Indeed, for every 1,000 children, 87 die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable water-borne diseases like diarrhoea. This alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily. India faces a turbulent water future and estimates reveal that by 2020, India's demand for water will exceed all sources of supply. To make matters worse, sewage and waste water from rapidly growing cities and effluents from industries have turned many rivers into fetid sewers.
In light of these issues an awareness raising programme has been put in place to address safe drinking water and health and hygiene helping to ensure that the benefits of clean water and latrines are fully realised by the community.
In addition, the programme aims to strengthen Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and has already helped them to form 219 community groups. The poorest and most excluded, including women and young people, are well represented on these groups and they work to make their local government bodies more responsive and accountable to their needs and demands. Collectively these groups represent the needs of 6,980 villagers and provide a forum for them to air any grievances and seek a positive outcome.
The organization has to date built two new wells in the area, fitted with hand-pumps and has repaired an additional 29 which were broken. In addition, it has helped 370 families to build latrine facilities in their homes. Over 2,700 people are already seeing huge benefits in their lives.