Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 6: Around 500 students and Junior Red Cross volunteers from six states participated in the national-level Handwash Mela organised by Inter Agency Group (IAG) Orissa, in collaboration with Indian Red Cross Society, Orissa State Branch, Water Aid and Save the Children at University High School here Friday.
The programme aimed to enhance awareness on the need for the healthy practice of hand-washing with soap as well as to make students effective communicators who can create awareness on such practices among their parents, neighbours and communities.
Students from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and 23 districts of the state participated in the programme.
Exhorting the students to develop a healthy habit, Dr Chakradhar Panda, secretary of IRCS, said, “Everyone should wash their hands properly. Developing a healthy habit will lead towards a healthy lifestyle. All of us have to take an initiative to guide others to develop a healthy habit.”
Speaking on water-borne and airborne diseases, Panda emphasised that all illnesses caused by lack of clean water and sanitation can be drastically reduced if hand-washing with soap becomes an ingrained household practice. “Washing is the most inexpensive public health initiative we should follow for a healthier and safer life,” Panda said.
Teaching the students the proper way of washing hands, MS Khan from Save the Children said, “Every school should play an important role to spread awareness among its students towards sanitation and hygiene. It is essential that students must be taught proper sanitation. To bring about change in society, we have to change our habits and accept proper sanitation and hygiene.”
All the dignitaries present at the event washed their hands in order to symbolise the significance of the habit. Later, all students took a pledge to spread awareness about cleanliness and proper sanitation.
Highlighting about open defecation, Sunetra Lala, wash specialist UNICEF, said, “India contributes to 58 per cent of the world’s population which defecates in the open. Be the changemaker to create awareness on wash and to prevent open defecation.”
