Later this week, city to join global hand-scrubbing movement…Jinal Shah

A modest school somewhere in Mumbais outskirts is home to a roomful of children who rush out of their classroom to find somebody waiting to share their lunch dabbas Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who not only admonishes them for not washing their hands before lunch, but also goes on to show them the right technique to washing, with soap. This 60-second television spot thats on air on Doordarshans Sahyadri channel from Sunday will soon be translated into 13 other languages in the run up to the first ever Global Hand Washing Day on October 15.

Tendulkar will also be on posters and banners as teachers across the country participate in the campaign, launched in the international Year of Sanitation. All Government schools in Maharashtra and all Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools in Mumbai will be participating too 32,000 schools in all. We have already issued notices to all schools to observe the global hand washing day, said Sheila Tiwari, deputy director of education, Mumbai region.

Teachers from each of these schools have also undergone special training in sanitation and hygiene education. The discourse for the day will be as per the guidelines, hand washing training, followed by the oath-taking, and a hand washing drill before the special mid day meal, said Anuradha Nair, a UNICEF official in Mumbai. Also planned are NSS camps to promote school health and sanitation and rallies by schoolchildren in smaller towns and villages.

Joint Municipal Commissioner Chandrashekhar Rokde said the BMC had already procured posters from both the Centre and the state governments. We will put these up at every BMC school, in the eating area as well as near the toilets. He said all schools are equipped with washbasin but not soap. We can certainly provide soap, it does not cost much, Rokde said.

Children are catalysts of change. Ideally situated at the intersection of the home, school and community, children can be powerful agents of behavioral change. Schools can be important centres to educate children on health and hygiene issues, if proper water and sanitation infrastructure is made available, said Gopinath Menon, state chief of the UNICEF.

Globally, South Asia has the worst sanitation indicators and six of eight countries in the region are not on schedule for meeting the sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, one of them being India.

Washing hands with soap prevents the transmission of disease and helps reduce diarrhoea and respiratory infections, as well as skin, eye and worm infections. A recent study suggests that washing hands with soap can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40 per cent, and respiratory infections by 30 per cent, according to Menon. Diarrhoea and respiratory infections are the number one cause for child deaths in India, said Menon.

The idea is to make it a habit to wash hands at least after defecating, before and after meals and after sneezing. Also hand washing is a part of the massive campaign on sanitation, said Nair.