Barriers to the Utilizaton of Latrines and Hygiene Practice among Landless People (A Case Study Based on Sijuwa Vdc of Morang District)

Abstract

The study entitled "Barriers to the Utilization of Latrines and Hygiene Practice among Landless People" is focused on finding out the barriers and practice related to the use of latrine and on identifying the knowledge and attitude on the use of latrine. Besides that, it also tries to find the assess of existing situation on the use of latrine. The study is descriptive in nature and based on primary data collected from 52 household respondents. Interview schedule and observation form are used as the tools of the data collection. Data are analyzed and interpreted manually. Analyzed and calculated data are presented in tables, figure and charts. According to the study results, 86.26 percent respondents were less than 60 years, 34.62 percent were Hindu, 17.31 percent were Brahmin and Chhetri, 21.15 percent were involved in agriculture in this study area. Here, only 11.54 percent respondents response the advantage of latrine as to live healthy life, 40.38 percent feel the need of public latrines is to keep the local environmental clean and 13.46 percent of them report the reason of spreading communicable disease is due to the lack of proper latrine for defecation. 11.52 percent of the respondent had higher education. 36.54 percent of the respondents had their own latrine and respondents do not have latrine due to the lack of proper land and knowledge respondents used river bank, open field and jungle for defecation where latrine is not available. 10.52 of the respondents use to clean the latrine daily. Among the people who wash the hand, only 32.69 percent wash their hands with soap and water. Similarly, only 52.63 percent used their latrine for urination and only 5.23 percent respondents had sufficient water supply inside the latrine in those landless community. The overall observation of the study thus indicates that safe modern latrine is necessary in every house to improve the sanitation status of respondents and to protect them from different communicable diseases. Governmental and non-governmental sectors should provide fund and material supports to the landless people for construction of latrines. On the other hand they should also launch health awareness programs and to raise education status of landless people which will play vital role to reduce the problem