Clean hands is the secret behind healthy life

• Today is Global Handwashing Day; Awareness programmes on cleanliness conducted at various places globally

Mangaluru: Everybody knows that a clean lifestyle is the secret behind a healthy life. But research has shown that we do not give much importance towards cleanliness due to laziness and neglect.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. This day is celebrated globally with the aim to create awareness on health and cleanliness. This year’s motto is ‘Clean Hands – A recipe for Health’. If we follow this in our daily lives, it will be our first step towards a healthy life.

With regard to the topic of health, small issues are very important. Several times because of our negligence and laziness we encounter diseases which leave us all worn out. Most of the times, the main reason is our failure to clean our hands.

Due to this one mistake that we do in our daily life, it can have adverse effect on our health. Before consuming any food, if we fail to wash our hands, we will ingest germs through our food or any other medium and thereby cause a problem in our stomachs. In order to create awareness on this issue, Global Handwashing Day is celebrated on every October 15^th. On this day, many countries in the world try to spread awareness amongst their citizens through campaigns. This time’s motto is ‘Clean Hands – A recipe for Health’.

Background

Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP) organisation in Sweden launched this campaign in 2008 with the aim to promote the practice of washing ones hand and to spread awareness in the society on the benefits of using soap while washing hand. Initially, this campaign was started with the aim to spread awareness on the use of soap for washing hands. Later many other organizations joined in with this organization. In 2011, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) conducted a study on the hand washing habits of the youth in USA and Canada and found out that more than 50% of the youths failed to use soap or any other anti-germs medium while washing their hands.

Benefits

Healthy life is important for everyone. Therefore, washing hands must be taken as an important activity in the daily activities of our lives. If we make a habit of washing hands regularly with soap or liquid soap, especially before consuming food, then it will be a step towards a healthy life.

Every year, close to 3.5 million children below the age of 2 years, suffer from diarrhea and pneumonia because of the germs entering their bodies, states a report. If importance is given towards washing hands, such types of diseases can be prevented. Therefore, washing hands should not be neglected and instead should be taken as a habit towards protection from germs and thereby a step towards healthy life.

2008 celebration

In India, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar had inaugurated the ‘Global Handwashing Day’ in 2008. He had addressed the close to 100 million students in the country on the subject of health and cleanliness and on the benefits of washing ones hands.

Article by Bhuvana Babu Puttur translated into English by Aaron Dmello