Bharat Ratna recipient and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar in association with Livpure Foundation recently launched “Shuddh Paani Swastha Bharat”, a movement aiming to lower the mortality rate among children under five due to waterborne diseases. According to the National Health Care Survey 2013 less than one-third of Indian households have access to purified drinking water. The ace batsman spoke to the Metroplus about his concern about this and other health-related issues.
Excerpts from the interview:
How do you feel connected to the cause of eradication of water borne diseases?
There are several children aged under five who are affected by diseases caused by impure water. Not only their health is affected, many lives are lost as well. Access to safe drinking water is a basic human right and this is the reason why I got associated with Shudh Pani, Swastha Bharat campaign.
How is Sachin as a brand ambassador going to work for this campaign?
Sachin as a brand ambassador can always propagate the message to his fans, followers and media. But it’s not an initiative that requires a few individuals to push. I think this will require a mega effort by the entire nation. I always want to be there to create awareness. I think once you start creating awareness the next steps follow automatically.
What suggestion would you give to the concerned authorities, including the Government to provide on access to clean drinking water for all?
There is no provision of reviewing drinking water quality at both source and supply levels. In developed countries, the water quality of the source reservoir is reviewed every month and the results are sent to each resident. I request that this should be done in India, too, to ensure that the quality of potable water is maintained. Additionally, water quality testing labs at block level should also be there. In urban areas, mobile testing laboratories can provide easy access to people.
How effective do you think is the medium of campaign to support a cause?
For water borne diseases, campaigns are required because of water contamination in the country. Since, we cannot directly impose an external cause-based model in the nation, we need to come up with campaigns that develop need-based models of sanitisation that are suitable in low-income environment.
You are UNICEF’s brand ambassador for hygiene. Do you find your role in this campaign interlinked with it?
Yes it is linked because both of them involve children. As the UNICEF ambassador, I have spent time with children in remote places that are not easily accessible and taught them cleanliness and certain level of hygiene like how to wash their hands. In this campaign, we have school children playing a really important part. Under the Student Health Ambassador Programme, selected school students would be trained to check the water for bacterial contamination with a small kit provided to them. If its impure they will report it to the concerned authorities.
