Sanitation is more important than freedom – Mahatama Gandhi

Sanitation and hygiene problem in India has been increasing at the unimaginable pace and it’s becoming difficult to tackle such a widespread problem. Reports suggest that inadequate sanitation causes India considerable economic losses, equivalent to 6.4 per cent (as per WASH) of India’s GDP. The impact of these losses disproportionately affects the poor which resulted in an overwhelmingly unhygienic environment and a variety of widespread health problems. Dirty water, choked sewage, littered streets, foul smelling colonies, horribly dirty river banks has become the breeding ground of serious diseases which are affecting the large population of the people living near open sewages, rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Lack of awareness, education and knowledge is making people stay in dark regarding the improved sanitation and hygiene level in their communities and society and encourage them to litter, open defecation and not think about the dire consequences it can have on their health. In fact, poor hygiene and cleanliness is one of the major reasons for higher premature mortality rate followed by diarrhea and malnutrition which are two leading causes of death of kids under the age of 5.

It’s high time and has become the matter of importance, more than ever to make people realize that they need to pay attention towards the environment around them so that they can improve their health at personal as well as community level. Government and authorities in India are trying to bring awareness and changes in the through campaigns like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and WASH. Despite of their best efforts and making more toilets and awareness campaigns, things are not changing as rapidly as much as expected.

• As per WaterAid more than 63.4 million people in India are living without access to clean water.
• As per the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, only 16 % people in rural India have piped water.
• As per WHO, 30% of supplied water in India was found contaminated with Iron which is a major cause of respiratory system haemorrhage.

To do our bit, Nidhi Foundation has pledged to make this country a better and more hygienic place to live and we have instigated this change from the community around us. Nidhi Foundation has been running workshops in the schools under its program Mission Nutrition with the objective to make children aware and knowledgeable about basic hygiene habits like hand washing, using toilets, waste management and clean water. A thing as small as washing hands can prevent deadly diseases and spread of infections among one another.

We run these workshops in mainstream schools as well as urban slum community centers and try our level best to make these children aware of the dangerous effects of unhygienic environment that prevails around them and how vulnerable they are to illness and sickness. In future, Nidhi Foundation is looking forward to increase the frequency and reach of its workshops and spread take the awareness even darkest and smallest corner of hard-to-reach areas without any discrimination.