An evidence-based approach towards identifying household emerging pollutants in rural areas in Southern Karnataka

Abstract

The need for establishing the emerging pollutants for various rural households has witnessed a paradigm-shift towards health-related issues. Low-income groups have inadvertently contributed to environmental degradation due to improper hygienic conditions. In this paper, statistical analysis on gathered data from regional households in Karnataka has been evaluated for the health status of the individuals. A selected area based on village patterns was presented with a sample questionnaire in order to gather the patterns of household conditions prevailing in the area. A broad categorization based on the Fuzzy C clustering approach has classifiers in the form of demographic and socio-economic responses, water supply factors, sanitation, indoor air pollution, and solid waste management approaches. For each of the categories, the emerging pollutant has been identified which collectively points to ‘Poverty’ being the primary cause of deteriorating household conditions among people in such rural areas. The results of the questionnaire indicated a strong correlation between the prevalence of pollution and ill health in the low-income category of people. The authors opine that this investigation would contribute to the Government initiative of the Swachh Bharat Mission.