Awareness and Practice of Personal Hygiene and Sanitation: A Study in a Slum Dwelling in Jammu City, J & K, India

Insufficient measures of sanitation have direct impact on the health of an individual, family, community and nation as a whole. In order to evaluate the personal hygiene and sanitary conditions of a slum dwelling in Jammu city, J & K, India, a cross sectional study was done with a total of 475 respondents through field work, surveys using questionnaire and by interviewing the people. The result emphasizes the need for measures to improve the physical environment of the area like basic amenities of toilets, proper drainage, sewerage system and adequate water supply. The people of the area were found to be living in pathetic unhygienic conditions with filthy community toilets, open defecation system, burning of wood, coal, dung cakes inside ill ventilated rooms, having various bad habits such as chewing of tobacco, smoking, drinking, least care about health, irregular use of soap before meals and after defecation and least care of other cleanliness measures that were considered as the major risk factors to the people of study area. This study was performed from August 2019 to January 2020, however, it has become more applicable and has gained even more relevance by this time as the results are compiled as it has become even more critical to practice measures of personal hygiene and maintain sanitation as per guidelines as today the whole world is in fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but millions of people have no ready access to clean water, safe surroundings and are ignorant about personal cleanliness and hygiene.