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“Experts Call for Inter-Ministerial Involvement for Sustaining Momentum
- They highlighted the need for a localised, multi-channel communication to nudge behaviour change as people can come up with innovative solutions.
- Handwashing in recent times is a fear-driven adoption of hygiene practises which can remain active for a limited time; hygiene should be a part of a group of protective behaviours.
- Adherence to hand hygiene could be highly compromised due to lack of awareness, supply of water, availability of soaps or local habits.
- Investing in hygiene has huge returns – a rupee invested can return up to INR 49.”
New Delhi, May 05, 2021:
Public health experts and social activists today rooted for a more sustained communication for behaviour change in the real at handwashing in India, not only to save people from the COVID-19 pandemic but for a longer-term prevention. Speaking at the Hand Hygiene Summit, organised by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHW) Council on World Hand Hygiene Day, they also emphasized the need of inter-ministerial coordination and collaboration for holistic communication.
“There is a lot of diversity in needs and inequity in India when it comes to handwashing practices. Behaviour change in people has remained unaddressed for a long time. We need a localised, multi-channel, sustained communication to nudge behaviour change, starting with children and schools – people themselves can come up with innovative localised solutions for their needs,” says Ms Urvashi Prasad, Senior Public Policy Specialist in the Office of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.
Highlighting that the better handwashing practice in the past one year is a fear-driven adoption, Ms Arundati Muralidharan, Manager Policy (WASH in Health & Nutrition, and Schools), WaterAid India, says, “We need to make hand hygiene a social norm because fear-driven adopting of hygiene practises can remain active for a limited time. Hygiene should be a part of a group of protective behaviours, but there are mindset barriers for which raising awareness is important. We have not made enough investment on hygiene in the community setting or public space; inter-ministerial involvement is important to achieve that goal.”
“India can be a developed country if the mortality and morbidity of its people can be reduced. Singapore is a case in point. As a British colony, hygiene was missing and soap was costly, people suffering from cholera, typhoid, and diarrhoea were common. But once we became free and hygiene was prioritised along with other measures, from a third-world country, we became a developed nation in 35 years. But I am worried that once COVID is over, we will forget about hygiene and its needs. We did not learn any lesson from the 2003 SARS event and here we are today,” says Mr Jack Sim, Founder, BoP HUB & World Toilet Organization.
“We have been campaigning on hygiene issues for many years now and since the beginning of the pandemic, we reached as many as 20 million school kids across India. We have found that investing in hygiene has huge returns – a rupee invested can return INR 34 while in Madrassas and Gurukuls, this return can increase up to INR 49. This year, we will invest in pre-preventive measures and target to cover Uttar Pradesh, reaching out to 10 million new people and 50 million children for behaviour change,” says Mr Ravi Bhatnagar, Director – External Affairs and Partnerships Asia Middle East, Reckitt Benckiser.
“In the past one year, we all have become far more aware of the term hand hygiene than ever before. However, the level of hand hygiene could be highly compromised among many with factors such as lack of awareness, supply of water, availability of soaps or local habits playing an important role. As the pandemic makes it important to wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, repeatedly throughout the day, inequity in access to enough water and soaps has raised the apprehensions of millions of households across the country being unable to protect them from the pandemic effectively. An estimated more than 50 million people in India may find themselves at greater risk of pandemic due to unavailability of basic hygiene including hand washing, making it important to discuss ways to improve access for simple, preventive steps like handwashing,” says Mr Kamal Narayan, CEO, Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHW) Council.
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