Self-Help Women’s Groups in India help change behavior around diets and toilet use to improve health
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Sushila Devi, a mother of four in the rural Rohtas district of Bihar, India, has no significant assets and depends primarily on casual labor for income. She recently was able to take out a bank loan of INR 12,000 (US$180), which she used to construct a toilet in her family home
It was the Self-Help Group (SHG) in her village that persuaded Sushila of the importance of sanitation for her children’s health and nutrition, and helped her get the loan she needed. SHGs generally consist of 12 to 15 rural women, grouped into larger federations. They engage with formal financial institutions to help unbanked households access financial services, acting as platforms for standardized large-scale sensitization of community members on a variety of subjects.
Sushila’s actions are part of a larger change driven across Bihar by the recently launched Bihar Transformative Development Project (BTDP), commonly known as JEEViKA-II. This joint initiative of the Government of Bihar and the World Bank covers 300 (56 percent) of the blocks of rural Bihar. The project is working through SHGs to deliver awareness, training, finance, and monitoring on sanitation and nutrition in an integrated manner.
Bihar is a challenging terrain. It has the highest rural population density in India and a per capita income barely half of the national average. A third of its population lives below the poverty line, and more than two-thirds of rural households do not have access to individual toilets. Only seven percent of children between six months and two years receive an adequate diet both in terms of diversity of nutrients and quantity — dictated more by lack of knowledge than resources. With a growing body of research linking open defecation to disease and child malnutrition, it is not surprising that the prevalence of stunting in children under the age of five in Bihar is a staggering 49 percent, much higher than the national average of 38 percent.
The Bihar Transformative Development Projects is using SHGs to address these issues and reach women at an unprecedented scale. The project’s integrated approach reflects lessons learned internationally, in fields such as rural sanitation, nutrition, and rural livelihoods. It involves collaboration among a number of departments within the World Bank, including the Water Global Practice, the Agriculture Global Practice, and Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice — each bringing lessons learned from their respective disciplines.
The approach has been tested in varied settings, and detailed guidelines and toolkits are now being drawn up. Project staff is trained to scale up this initiative across Bihar, and the lessons learnt, guidelines, and toolkits are used to scale up across rural livelihood projects in other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
Scaling up involves several steps. First, a comprehensive package of behavior change communications on sanitation and nutrition practices is delivered across a village. Working through SHGs makes mobilization and communication easier, as they hold regular weekly meetings where trained female community mobilizers can deliver a uniform set of messages repeatedly across the community.
When this triggers demand for better sanitation among SHG members, such as Sushila, the SHG’s federation is able to provide them with ready options for financing the construction of a toilet, as well as to help them see if they are eligible for benefits from government programs such as Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Importantly, these links with finance providers reduce the gap from mere orientation to taking immediate action. Similarly, an understanding of the benefits of diet diversity on maternal and child health is supported by resources and training to grow nutrient-rich vegetables in backyard kitchen gardens.
By design, the project works exclusively with women. , thereby giving them a greater say in household decisions.
The project’s design also addresses the common problem that a new toilet doesn’t always translate into active usage or sustained behavior change. Village federations lead post-construction monitoring through regular visits to these households, while messages around the health linkages between nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation continue to be delivered through SHGs.
For Sushila Devi, in addition to constructing a toilet, she also grew a vegetable garden in her backyard; a good example of improving her diet that the project will use to try to persuade more than five million rural poor households in Bihar to follow.
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With rural development department at the helmnow sanitation programme is picking up in Bihar.I am sure the approach of engaging with SHGs will not only improve the coverage but toilet usage is also going to improve.
Amazing story, Vinay. You mentioned a comprehensive package of behavior change communications on sanitation and nutrition practices in your post. Can you please share more about it and what are the lessons learnt from leveraging strategic communications in project implementation in your case?
Literacy awareness on WATER Harvesting & CONSERVATION , Public Health
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PSS Educational Development Society Regd NGO Secretary Dr Bathula Sanjeevarayudu has doing clean and green sanitation Ground water and Rain conservation Literacy awareness programmes excelled in reviving water resources in Rural areas of of ANDHRA PRADESH STATE KARNATAKA KERALA TAMILNADU WIDE
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To improve the quality of the eco system and meet the livelihood needs of Rural people which will contribute to improve the socio economic nutrition health status of people and ecological condition of the environment
Literacy awareness In a country like India where population is growing at the rate of nearly 2 per annum and about 70 of its population is engaged in subsistence farming water shed management assumes an exceedingly important sole not only for the production of more food but also for prevention of degradation of land and mainly water in the process Experiments with water shed management have so far yielded rich dividend and provided valuable in right to the aspects of management of our natural resources basic particularly land and water. Water shed management is not a passing fad it is intricately related with an extremely beneficial to the lives of millions of farmers throughout the world
Spreading Science & Technological Awareness ;- Rural literacy Public health &Water resources using methods water can reservation It is necessarily to educate spreading message through conducted public meetings Kalajathas Rallies workshops exhibitions printed pamphlets wall posters showing films and formation water conservation clubs in schools colleges etc. to the people about the new opportunities available water resources and create responsibility for the protection preservation and responsible management of all the available water resources in A P State wide and Southern States also
Science & Technological Innovation
PSS Educational Development society Regd NGO Secretary Dr Bathula Sanjeevarayudu have identified the need for developing training innovative modules for Rural people engaged in their livelihood on natural resources Eradicate common diceses through water resources and enable them to improve their livelihood through Agriculture and Animal Health aquaculture etc this programmes does not envisage trainings as an end itself but aims to strength water shad management Rain water conservation water utility eradication of water wastage and upgrading the technical skills of people on Agriculture Aquaculture and provided them with equipments and financial support to set their our self employment and Income Generation spreading messages on drip irrigation new techniques in agriculture field etc
Impact on society about Health ;-
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Health and Environmental benefits
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Our NGO Dr Bathula Sanjeevarayudu adopted 25 village and Kurnool city urban area in A P state wide Now were completed from Erragudur village Eco Model Village in A P state through fully utilization of water resources tree plantation Animal Development programmes clear and green programmes Sanitation programmes internal roads laying etc
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Celebrity Interviews
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