Effect of extension strategies for imparting knowledge on practices of safe storage of water at household level

The action-cum-experimental study was conducted in Ludhiana district of Punjab. Snow-ball sampling technique was used for selection of 200 rural women from eight villages. The objectives of the study were to assess the existing knowledge of respondents on safe water storage practices and to compare the effect of different extension strategies for imparting knowledge. Practices related to safe water storage container and cleaning of household water storage tank were covered under the study. Use of interpersonal methods (S_I), videos delivered through WhatsApp (S_II) and use of both interpersonal methods and videos delivered through WhatsApp (S_III) were the three extension strategies used in the study. A self-structured knowledge test was used for collection of data into two phases i.e. before intervention and after three months of intervention. Results of the study showed that all three extension strategies significantly increase the knowledge of respondents on selected practices. Moreover, 75.3 per cent and 24.7 per cent respondents with low and medium level of knowledge, respectively, shifted to high level of knowledge category after exposure to the intervention. The effect of S_I and S_III was statistically equal and the highest for increasing the knowledge of respondents on practices related to cleaning of household water storage tank. Therefore, it may be inferred that there is a need to use more of the interpersonal methods to increase knowledge of people on different topics.