The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation recently reported that sanitation coverage in rural India, under the Swachh Bharat Mission has now risen to 85 per cent. In August 2016, the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme was launched in all health centers/ facilities by the National Health Mission (NHM) in collaboration with UNICEF and the IIHMR University, Jaipur a premier public health management and research university of India.
WASH is extremely vital to public health and has the potential to greatly reduce infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternal mortality rates (MMR) in India.
The program has been executed in seven high priority districts in Madhya Pradesh namely, Shahdol, Umaria, Anuppur, Shivpuri, Sheopur, Guna and Mandla and helped upgrade about 76 per cent of the facilities of these districts to a 4-5-Star rating.
The confidence of the patients, attendant and community in public governance has seen a marked growth through the duration of this program. Majority of them are highly satisfied with the positive changes in the health facility.
In the extended phase of the program for creating an enabling environment at health facilities of the 7 HPDs and two tribal districts namely, Jhabua and Alirajpur, that is 9 HPDs in total IIHMR University, in consonance with NHM,MP and UNICEF, organized a state level workshop on June 30, 2018, at Hotel lakeview Ashoka in Bhopal.
Goutam Sadhu, Professor and Dean, School of Development Studies, IIHMR University, Jaipur, observed that India is among the few countries where significant numbers of children are still dying from waterborne diseases such as sepsis, diarrhea and others.
The main reason for the failure of the Water Sanitation program was the neglect shown to people's reactions toward directives given in a top-down fashion. Fortunately, the IIHMR Uhas had considerable research experience in this field.