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According to SAGY guidelines issued by the Ministry of Rural Development, inculcating hygienic behaviour and practices is one of the most important components for Personal Development of individuals living in the selected Adarsh Gram.

Hence, during the preliminary assessment exercise in Kalika GP,

the on-ground SAGY team specifically studied the Hygiene and

Sanitation status in the GP. As part of this, the team visited

Government Schools, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), and

Community Health Centre to interact with the community,

mainly women and children. While lack of physical

infrastructure such as a toilet complex or permanent building

became the focal point of discussion in all meetings, the poor

hygiene behaviour that was easily visible everywhere was least

discussed. Many girls were seen to be defecating in the open in

most schools due to lack of toilet, but none of them even

bothered to wash hands before going back to their classrooms.

Before planning any intervention and in order to get a better

understanding of the health and hygiene scenario, the team

attended a Mamata Divas (Village Health & Nutrition Day) to

meet with ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and village

women and even conducted a Mini Health Camp in the GP. This

brought to light numerous health problems due to poor sense of

hygiene and sanitation prevalent in Kalika.

Hand Wash Campaign – An Initiative by Swaniti and Lifebuoy, HUL to make Kalika ODF, Hygienic and Healthy

Personal Hygiene & Sanitation in Kalika

Kalika is one of the largest Gram

Panchayats in Balasore (Odisha) spread

across 11 wards with a population greater

than 6000. The gender ratio in the

Panchayat is greater than 1 and more

than 60% of the population belongs to

SC/ST Category.

Kalika boasts to be one of the first few

Panchayats in Balasore to achieve the

target of toilet construction in each

household; however an in-depth analysis

of Personal Hygiene and Sanitation by

the SAGY team revealed a shocking

picture. Many people continued to

defecate in the open while a lot of

women and adolescent girls were found

to be anemic or suffered with urine

infection and had extremely poor sense

of hygiene. Similary, quite a few children

in the GP were found to be

Malnourished.

On the other hand, institutions such as

Schools, Anganwadi Centers and

Hospitals paid minimal attention to

maintain proper hygiene that largely

affects women and children.

Kalika, Balasore

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Good Personal Hygiene – Way to a healthy and happy life

Personal Hygiene refers to the comprehensive cleaning and caring for your body and is vital in combating

and preventing illness. Maintaining good personal hygiene includes bathing, washing hands, brushing

teeth and wearing clean clothes. However, such aspects to healthy life are often not adequately catered in

rural areas and similar was the case in Kalika. Hence, while it is important to ensure that each household,

School and AWC in Kalika have proper toilets, it is equally important that people realise the benefits of

use of toilet and maintaining good personal and community hygiene.

The document below entails the entire process of execution of a Hand Wash Awareness Drive in Kalika.

A. Conceptualizing the Hygiene Awareness Programme

The team met the DPC, SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), BDO (Block Development Officer) and the CDPO

(Child Development Project Officer) to raise concern pertaining to lack of toilet and permanent building

in Schools and AWCs. As these proposals were put under process, the team conceptualized a Mass

Campaign to inculcate good hygiene practices in the community. It was realized in discussion with health

workers and PRI members that Awareness and IEC drive alone may not create a lasting impact within the

community and there was need for a more tangible intervention directly reaching out to each individual.

During interaction with community and visit to tribal areas of the GP, the team also noted an uneven

presence of hand wash material in many households and institutions. It was surprising to note that none

of the Schools, AWCs or the Hospital had soap (or any other hand wash material) in their premises. The

need and idea of a Comprehensive Hand Wash Awareness Campaign was subsequently born and

finalised.

In order to motivate people, including school children, women and the working population about benefits

of regular Hand Washing, the team formulated a 2-step plan:

Physical Exercise of Hand-Washing

Conduct Community Exercises of hand-washing with soap covering all wards of the GP in order to spread awareness

Soap Distribution to Households

Make each individual realize the benefits of washing hands and subsequently motivate them to purchase soaps

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B. CSR Partnership for Implementation

In order to execute the plan, the team decided to reach out to credible CSR partners that had worked to

address the cause, particularly in rural terrains. It was the same time when the Prime Minister was

putting strong emphasis on ‘Clean India Campaign’ and many organizations were found associating with

the program as part of their CSR policy.

Based on extensive study, the team identified one of the most impactful and successful initiative called

‘Help a Child Reach 5’ by Hindustan Unilever. The 'Help a Child Reach 5' is an on-ground hand-washing

behaviour change program started by HUL in 2013 in Thesgora, a village in Madhya Pradesh that has one

of the highest rates of child diarrhoea in India. This program created a significant impact, with mothers

reporting reduction in incidence of diarrhoea from 36% to 5%, and 26% more children washing their

hands before meals.

The team sent a partnership proposal to HUL on behalf of Mr. Jena in June’16. HUL responded positively

to the proposal and provided following items to the team for successful on-ground implementation of the

program, the same was delivered to Office of MP in Balasore in Sept’16:

Sl. No. Item Quantity Purpose

1 Liquid Hand Wash (250 ml) 30 Conduct Hand Washing Exercise in Schools,

AWCs and Community areas. Distribute

liquid hand wash to Schools and AWCs. 2 Hand Wash Refill Pack (900 ml) 60

3 Soap Bar 2804 Distribute 2 bars to each household in the GP

The India Manager of Lifebuoy, Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, visited Swaniti’s office in August’16 to discuss about

the partnership and help plan the road-ahead. HUL also shared a set of flyers and posters and also

provided an orientation session to the team for smooth conduction of the program in Schools and AWCs.

C. Preparations before the Campaign

In order to ensure effective implementation of the Hand Wash Awareness Program, the team planned to:

Perform Current Assessment of Hygiene Behaviour – In order to exactly assess the current behaviour

pattern in Kalika, the team conducted a survey of 103 Households across all 11 wards of the GP. The

main variables assessed were – Physical Infrastructure, Awareness in the population and Health

Status. This would serve as a benchmark for comparison post-conduction of the campaign.

Activate the entire health work-force – To ensure sustainable impact, the team involved the village

health workers such as ASHA Saathi, ASHAs, and Anganwadi workers to conduct the campaign. This

would inculcate a sense of responsibility among the workers for the cause in the long run.

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The survey results showed the current status of awareness in the population with respect to personal

hygiene and formed the basis to plan the road-ahead. The key results depicted by the survey are shown

below:

Observation: Almost equal proportions of BPL households surveyed do not wash hands with soap

A step further into examining this contrasting picture in BPL Households revealed that there is significant

disparity in awareness level among the BPL population with respect to benefits of hand-wash.

It was also noted that 22 out of 68 BPL Households do not wash hands even after visiting the toilet.

65

32 33

38

3

35

Total Households Surveyed APL Households BPL Households

Wash Hands with Soap DO NOT Wash Hands with Soap

33 30

19

35

16

3

Total BPL Households Households said soap help Maintain Cleanliness

Households said hand hygiene is related to Better Health

BPL HHs that Use Soap BPL HHs that Do NOT Use Soap

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D. Conducting Hand Wash Campaign in Schools and Anganwadi Centers

Based on orientation provided by HUL and the observations made in the household survey, the team

prepared a timeline for Hand Wash Exercise in all Schools and Anganwadi Centers of Kalika, thus

reaching out to every women and child in the GP.

The common process followed in organizing such a camp is elaborated below:

Anganwadi and ASHA workers spread

Awareness about the forthcoming Camp in

each household of the ward

Women and children from the ward

assemble at the AWC (or the School) along with health workers

and Swaniti team

Sarpanch welcomes the attendees. MPs

team and health workers talk about the importance of

hygiene

School Teacher(s) create fun session

with help of cartoon characters to

encourage children to use toilets and soap

ASHA Saathi and Workers demonstrate a 6-Step Hand Wash

Process to the attendees for proper

cleaning of hands

Volunteers from the audience (women and

children) come forward to repeat the

6-Step Hand Wash Process as explained

Each attendee washes hands

following the 6-step process. ASHA and

Anganwadi workers assist in the process

2 bars of soap distributed to each

woman/child who are encouraged to

purchase the same henceforth

1 Liquid Soap (250 ml) and 2 Refill packs

(900 ml) given to each School/AWC for

future use; they also write a pledge note

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The team prepared 2 banners, obtained from HUL and the Health Department under NHM, in Odia for

display in Schools/AWCs while conducting the camps. The banners contained message regarding benefits

of washing hands with soap and occasions on which hand-wash is necessary.

Poster received from HUL Poster from Health Department under NHM

Key Message displayed at the top of 2 posters: Swachh Kalika, Swastha Kalika

The first hand-wash awareness session was conducted in Gahirabandh AWC, the largest ward in Kalika

GP, in September’16 and attended by women and children of the particular village.

Swaniti team welcomes the attendees and discusses the Community Participation in Gahirabandh AWC;

Importance of good personal hygiene and hand-washing women and children follow the hand-wash steps

More than 150 women and children washed their hands with soap on this day and received 2 bars of

Lifebuoy soap.

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Encouraging children to use toilet and soap regularly; School children volunteer to show the 6-step

Use of cartoon characters by Hatigarh PS teacher Hand- wash process demonstrated by ASHA SAATHI

A similar session was organized in Hatigarh School in October’16 where children from Primary and

Upper Primary section and women from Kushtashram, Darkhuli, Hatigarh and Kaliko wards attended the

session. To encourage children to use toilets and wash their hands with soap, the message was

communicated with help of amusing cartoon characters (flipchart received from HUL), such as Dhoom,

Dishoom and Dhamaka. The above mechanism (as in Gahirabandh AWC) was executed in presence of

more than 300 participants who washed their hands and later received one bar of soap each. All 4 AWCs

were given same quantity of hand wash material. Each AWW also wrote a note on how this exercise will

benefit the community and how they plan to use the hand wash material received.

Bars of soap distributed to attendees after Anganwadi Workers received Liquid Hand Wash (250 ml)

Washing hands with soap and 2 Refill Packs (900 ml each)

The Hand-wash session has been conducted in 5 out of 10 AWCs and 2 out of 7 Schools in the GP till date.

The remaining schools and AWCs will be covered in upcoming months.

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E. Ensuring Sustainable Impact of the Campaign

The hand-washing exercise received a very enthusiastic and positive response from the health workers

and the community alike. Many women vowed to purchase soaps once the donated stock would exhaust.

This was the first instance when health workers in Kalika were exposed to an exercise focusing on

personal hygiene on such large-scale. As the team had already addressed 2 major grievances of AWWs,

that are, provision of permanent building and installation of necessary equipment, this allowed space to

demand more sincerity from the workers to ensure better quality of health services and greater focus on

hygiene in AWCs and in lives of women and children. The AWWs and ASHAs were also encouraged to

check each other in their line of duty. Based on the momentum created by the Hand Wash Camp, the team

is working to create a female work-force involving Anganwadi Workers and SHG (Self Help Group)

members to end Open Defecation and inculcate better sense of Personal & Community Hygiene in the GP.

F. Media Coverage of the Event

The hand-wash exercise was extensively covered by the local and state-level media, including The

Statesman, The Pioneer, PNS and Anudhyan (Odia newspaper). An article is attached below.