LAUSR

The world today is the victim of climate change; rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and extreme weather events leading to overexploitation of groundwater for various purposes at agricultural and household level. The present study is an action research applying a seven-step approach of social marketing to bring change in water use behaviour of rural people of Punjab, India. Findings revealed that the overall level of awareness of the majority of the respondents regarding climate change was found to be medium. They also suggested that awareness of effects of climate change on water resources and factors responsible for water depletion should be created among farming families to make them water saving conscious. Thus, an awareness campaign consisting of rallies and street plays was conducted. Knowledge regarding water saving technologies was imparted through skill training. Adoption of small water saving devices on a trial basis was facilitated by distributing water literacy kits. Post-knowledge test data revealed that the knowledge of 68.0% farmers and 61.33% of farm women increased to a high level after intervention. All the respondents adopted distributed technologies on a trial basis. The social marketing approach proved to bring about change in the water use behaviour of rural people and impacted their knowledge and adoption level.