When hand wash becomes a fun activity, children will be drawn towards it.
This was the message given at a workshop held here on Friday jointly by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), the district administration, and the UNICEF.
“There is a certain level of bonding through eye contacts, a sense of ownership, and camaraderie when children gather around for a hand wash,” said Arun Dobhal, the water, sanitation and hygiene specialist, UNICEF, while speaking of his experience in schools in Krishnagiri.
The Swatch Bharath campaign has given impetus to school sanitation by way of Swatch Vidyalaya through the SSA. “Modern wash stations, and functional toilets can be built at schools,” he added.
Children are the “change agents.”
When a child is made aware of the need to wash hands, she can inspire other children, her parents, and even members of society to do the same, he said.
Speakers at the workshop, ‘Scaling up wash in schools in Tamil Nadu,’ too emphasised the need to rope in children at an early age to spread the message of sanitation, and hygiene.
District Collector T.P. Rajesh said that children should be the ‘sanitation ambassadors’ taking home the habit of sanitation and hygiene to their parents.
The child’s general penchant for playing with water should be tapped so that the routine hand-wash became a lively day-to-day practice that will stay on for life, he said.
In Krishnagiri, 1,632 schools had 100 per cent functional gender-segregated toilets with water, and 1,378 schools had RO water treatment plants.
In the next three months, 60,500 individual household toilets are slated to be constructed through Village Poverty Reduction Committees and Panchayat Level Federations, Mr. Rajesh said.
Krishnagiri has 210 model wash stations, which can be emulated across the State, said speakers at the workshop.
