Involvement of Rural People in Swachh Bharath Mission – A Study on Socio Economic Profile

Study was carried out in 2020-2021 from Dharwad taluk (Dharwad district) and Muddebihal taluk (Vijayapura district) of Karnataka. The present research aimed to explore the existing awareness and involvement about Swachh Bharath Mission among rural people. A total of 320 respondents were selected for the study through purposive random sampling technique. Data was collected through personal interview method and analayzed through frequency and percentages. Swachh Bharath Abhiyan is not a new programme. Launched in 1986 as the central rural sanitation programme, the scheme advanced became the total sanitation campaign (1999) and nirmal bharath abhiyan (2012). Some regard it as simply a retitling. It can be concluded from the study that, higher percentage of the respondents belonged to poor class of socio-economic status. Half of the respondents were members of self-help groups. Maximum per cent of respondents possessed television followed by mobile and radio. Gram panchayath was the Source of SBM information according to majority of respondents. Most of the respondents had simple Indian toilets at their houses and more than half of the respondents constructed the toilets through government financial support. Large majority of the respondents carrying the water in bucket to the toilet and little more than the one third of the respondents mentioned inadequate water facility as the reason for non-construction of toilet. Nearly half of the respondents were using cotton cloths during menstruation. Major per cent of the respondents were practice of changing pads/cloths during menstruation at an interval of 5-7 hrs. Large majority of the respondents had open drainage system and majority of the respondents did not practice segregation of wastes and majority of the respondents disposing waste in garbage pit.