Health and Sanitation Status of Bote Community

This is a study of the health and sanitary status of Bote community, an indigenous caste of Nepal. Their Major source of income of fishing and boating and traditionally, they are less dependent on farming. Most of them stay along the riverside. There are two types of Bote; paani Bote and Pakhe Bote. Paani Botes are those who solely depend on fishing, boating, collecting motes of gold from river banks. Pakhe Bote depend more on agriculture, animal husbandry and porter for their survival. Health status and sanitation are a major problem in this community. Methods: This is a non experimental descriptive exploratory study carried out during the period of October-November; 2009. The study population constituted 100 inhabitants of Bote community of Pragatinagar VDC of Nawalparasi district. Data was collected by on their opinion on issues such as level of health awareness, personal cleanliness, sanitation status, willingness to participate in various awareness programmes and skill development trainings. Results: Only 15 percentages of respondents are aware of hygiene and most of them believe that ghosts spread of diseases. Most of the respondents known about family planning and immunization but there was minimal use of family planning tools and immunization (8%). Conclusion: Health and sanitation in this community was found to be very poor when compared to other communities of Nepal. Emphasis on health education programme should be given to improve the status of health and sanitation in this community. Keywords: Bote community, hygiene, sanitation. DOI: 10.3126/joim.v31i3.2996 Journal of Institute of Medicine, December, 2009; 31(3) 41-45