ANNOUNCEMENTS
The study aims to find the causal impact of the WASH in Schools intervention, initiated by Government of India, on the hygiene and sanitation related behavioural changes among slum dwellers. This study is based on two slums of Delhi.
Firstly it discusses the importance of providing WASH facilities to school going children and secondly focuses on the motives to do so. This intervention believes that school students can become ‘potential agents of change’ and can bring a change in perception as well as behaviour of their family and friends towards the need of maintaining hygiene and consuming cleaner water and food.
The study further focuses on figuring some factors that have been not been considered as of now which might have a significant role in bringing a change in hygiene related perception.
Difference-in-Differences (DID) method has been used to compare changes in outcomes before and after the intervention between the treatment and control groups and to come up with a DID estimate which can be interpreted as the causal impact of the intervention. Four major indicators of hygiene related behavioural change are been studied namely Change in Maintaining Menstrual Hygiene, Improvement in source and quality of drinking water, Increase in awareness regarding use cleaner toilets and Improvement in hand washing practice with soap at crucial times. These outcome variables have been regressed on various demographic characteristics.
Conclusions have been that in the last 3-4 years people have become more aware regarding importance and ways of maintaining hygiene in all aspects. I also conclude from the study that behavioural change has occurred in younger and more educated mothers. Also the study shows up an interesting aspect that although intervention at school level is necessary to bring a change but it cannot be assumed that introduction of an intervention will surely lead to a change in practices in reality as in many cases it could lead to a sheer change in perception due to financial inability to convert that ‘will’ to change into an ‘actual’ change.
Lastly some suggestions have been made which might help in achieving the real goal of such interventions.
