Chain reaction

Budhari (centre) and Laxmi (right) show the cards that they and other women use to promote good hygiene to their fellow villagers.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Over twenty one million people live in the Chhattisgarh state of India, but as only 5% have access to a latrine, changing hygiene practices here is crucial. WaterAid and its partner Lakshakti Samiti have found a novel approach to reach many communities at once.

Women from different villages come together and learn about good hygiene. They then return home and through their village women's groups share what they have learnt with their friends, families and neighbours. They, in turn, then tell others and so the good hygiene messages and practices spread.

"I attended five days of training with other women," explains Budhari Shashwa from Aurda village. "Then, when I came back I passed on what I head learnt to others in my village.

"Each week we shared one message. One week we would explain about hand washing and then we would follow this up the next week. We would see if they are following the practice and then move on to the next message.

"Many people weren't part of the group and so to make sure everyone was reached, we gave group members the responsibility of explaining the messages to their neighbours and then going around and seeing how they are getting on. Rather than relying on everyone telling us that their neighbours were taking up the messages we would go and visit them and ask the neighbour how they were getting on.

"The messages have now spread across the villages. The women have not only shared it in their groups, they have shared it with their families and with their neighbours too. Then the neighbours have done the same - they have shared with their families and also with their neighbours and so a chain is created."

Laxmi Sashwa also lives in Aurda, and has seen for herself the differences that the good hygiene messages have brought to the community.

"I used to collect water from the pond, but now I only collect it from the handpump. When we used to drink the water from the pond we used to have a lot of fevers. It was a part of our life, but now we don't get them.

"Vomiting, dysentery and stomach aches used to be a big problem, but this was only because of uncleanliness and because we weren't following the proper hygiene messages. When we started to follow all of these practices we saw lots of changes. So much has changed that last year we didn't report one single case of diarrhoea.

"We learnt a lot of things from the groups. We have realised the importance of ourselves. Before we felt we couldn't show our faces to the men. Even our family members used to take objection when we used to go outside of the village. But now we can go anywhere, we can go out to have discussions and we can chat.

"When I first heard about these hygiene messages I felt very happy. I realised that change would be with us. We were aware about the uncleanliness but we didn't know about bacteria and germs and all these things. So when we started to learn about these things we told the others about them too. We didn't realise how dangerous faeces were or stagnant water. We knew they were bad, but we didn't know how bad and so didn't take them that seriously. We didn't have full knowledge then.

"We used to feel very shy to go out to the latrine. If anyone came we had to stand up and so we had to stand 10 times or so, it also used to take a lot of time. We have started to construct latrines now. They aren't all completed. Some have dug the pits, others are fully constructed.

"I shared the messages with my neighbours, they shared it with their neighbours and they pass it on too. In the past there wasn't even a 25% level of understanding about hygiene but now it is 100%."