Let's Connect For A Cause: sanitation

CACR- Project HandWash

Every day you wake hoping for a better today. There is a sprint in your step; there is a gleam in your eye; there is freshness in your soul. All these fantasies crash when you get out of your apartment and start walking. You realise that the possibility of enjoying the blue sky is zero, zilch, nil. Because every step is like being in a video game where an unknown enemy in the form of potholes, bodily fluids, faeces, garbage, spits, is in front of you.

So, it is great to have a Prime Minister who considers cleanliness an important part of the country’s policy portfolio. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan has helped to create awareness about hygiene and sanitation and small initiatives have been started by individuals, groups and corporations as part of this programme.

One such initiative started is by the NGO CACR (Citizen Association for Child Rights), ‘Project Hand Wash’ under the UNICEF guidelines. It was started in August by its Director Nitin Wadhwani, and Project Head Dr. Richa Singh. It is a 12 session program of 45 to 60 mins with one session per week.

CACR - Project Hand Wash

As a pilot project started in 14 BMC schools between Bandra and Andheri, it benefits approximately 545 students. As per the UNICEF guidelines the sessions have a mixture of theory and games to explain the hygienic and correct way of washing hands and other safe sanitation practices. Activities like the Hand wash song, catch the ball game, storytelling, are used to explain bacteria and germs, their effect on our immune system and the ways to prevent their proliferation in our body.

CACR - Project Hand Wash

This programme is a step towards bringing about behavioural changes in the children’s hygiene and sanitation practices. By educating students when to wash their hands, the correct way of washing hands, proper garbage disposal, safe sanitation practices, we hope to lessen the effects of common diseases like diarrhoea, viral flu, cold and cough on the immune system. These behavioural changes will help create awareness among others too, along the way.

Did you know that more than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene- related issues? Of the 60 million people added to the world’s towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements like slums with access to no sanitation facilities. 780 million people lack access to an improved water source.

Importance of Clean water and Sanitation

Three things most of today’s world’s population cannot do:

Take a hot shower,

Get access to clean water,

Flush away last night’s dinner.

Today a greater number of people have a mobile phone than a toilet. Shocking, isn’t it?

In the year 2013, my school celebrated the United Nations World Water Day. As the survey head of the project, my team and I visited slums, residential and corporate complexes, a children’s hospital and an agricultural fair to understand the water problems these sectors were facing. Out of all the others, my visit to the various slums of Mumbai exposed me to a side of my city that I had never seen before. Open sewage channels ran along the length of the narrow lanes, with houses so close to each other that there was hardly any space to walk. The repulsive stench emerging from these channels made me feel a little nauseous. It surprised me how the residents of the slums were totally oblivious to it. When I told them how unhygienic it was to have an open sewage right outside their house, they said, ‘ये तोह चलता है ’, - This is completely fine. The concept of sanitation and hygiene was miles away from them. This experience made me realize that there is a dire need for awareness within the people.

In the midst of several pressing issues like corruption, human trafficking, the economic crisis, terrorism, etc. India may have lost focus on something as basic as water and sanitation. As Mahatma Gandhi once rightly said, ‘Sanitation is more important than independence’. Inadequate sanitation and hygiene is a major cause of diseases worldwide.I believe that sanitation is a noble and important mission for this nation.

The existence of such sanitation and hygiene issues in India is due to India’s huge and growing population, which is putting a severe strain on all of the country’s natural resources. Statistically speaking, majority of the water sources are contaminated by sewage and agricultural runoff. On a brighter side, India seems to have made some progress in the supply of safe water to its people, but there persists to be a gross disparity in coverage across the country. In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily. What is lacking in this nation is awareness and education. I strongly support the fact that only awareness and education can take us a step forward towards either alleviating or even as far as eradicating several problems faced by us today.

Sanitation is the basic human right. Then why are women in particular going through a major sanitation crisis? Why do women have to walk miles to fetch water, in turn giving up on their right to education? Why do women struggle most from the lack of adequate sanitation? In many countries, women are not permitted to relieve themselves during the day. This has a major impact on the health of the women, risking the accumulation of toxins in their blood stream.

Sanitation is a human right

About half of all girls worldwide attend schools without toilets. The lack of privacy causes many girls to drop out when they reach puberty.The question I want to ask here is- why this discrimination? Sanitation is essential for one and all, whether a man or a woman. An increase in the sanitation and hygiene access of women can lead to several positives. Increase access leads to an increase in the rate of education of girls, improved health for women and girls, reduced child and mother mortality rates, reduction in any form of physiological injury, increase in the status quo of women and also provision of new employment opportunities of women.

But a lack of access and the dual aspects of the water crisis – lack of water and of sanitation – lock women in a cycle of poverty.The water crisis is interlinked with the sanitation and hygiene concern prevalent in the world. Water is a scarce resource, which has become a source of conflict, instead of being a catalyst of building new connections. Sanitation and hygiene can be tackled by increased awareness and equality. Educating women about can indirectly lead to educating thousands of other individuals.

At CACR we screened short animation films on the necessity of hygiene and sanitation during the cleanliness week in municipal schools of Mumbai. After the screening lot of parents and students asked us questions on proper ways to store water in their houses, use disinfectants to keep their toilets and houses germ free and improve their health by various hand-washing techniques.As a organization working to promote education and health in school going kids , we remain committed to awareness creation on pertinent issues like clean water and sanitation, hygiene -WASH.

So please join hands with us to do your bit by becoming a change agent to promote healthy living.