Handwashing with soap remains inaccessible for millions of homes and especially children, says POONAM SEWAK
Contaminated hands are often the first routes of many microbial infections. They are responsible for 80 per cent of infectious diseases - be it water-borne digestive tract or respiratory tract infections such as cold and the flu, diarrhoea and intestinal illnesses or common eye infections, caused by bacteria, viruses and germs. Hence, the two most important words of public health messaging have always been: soap, and water.
Some of the important moments of hand washing include after using the toilet or changing baby’s nappies; before, during and after preparing food; before eating; after using a tissue or handkerchief; before and after attending to sick person or touching pets or animals; handling cash or coins or touching switches, door handles and even laptop.
With the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world, the importance of handwashing with soap is becoming more critical. The theme for Global Handwashing Day 2020: Hand hygiene for all, underlines the importance of handwashing during the COVID-19 pandemic as a method to prevent the rise and spread of the virus.
Science explains how water-soap combination works. When people wash hands with soap and water for an optimum time of 20-30 seconds, water disrupts the hydrophilic (water-loving) portions of the envelope or molecular wall of pathogens, while soap takes care of damaging the hydrophobic (water-hating) portions of the same - thus inactivating pathogens.
Though WHO recommends alcohol-based hand sanitizers, they usually contain a mixture of alcohols such as ethanol, isopropyl alcohols, hydrogen peroxides in different combinations. Frequent use of these sanitizers may become toxic to human health and also is not friendly to the environment. There is enough evidence to suggest that handwashing with water and soap is more friendly to hands than sanitizers. Overexposure to hand sanitizers can make the skin become dry. It can also lead to eczema, a condition in which patches of skin become inflamed, itchy, cracked, and rough.
Hence, hand washing with soap and water is a highly desirable, recommended, and effective strategy against infections. However, it is unfortunate that the most vulnerable communities in India are unable to use the simplest of methods to protect themselves and their loved ones. Providing additional water for hygiene becomes more challenging in this pandemic situation that demands frequent hand washing with soap.
Unfortunately, India has nothing much to write home about in providing access to water. Also, the habit of using soaps among its population is rare.
Today, sensitization, awareness and education on the significance of washing hands, as well as the proper techniques to keep hands clean is being promoted aggressively by the government, NGOs and corporates for improved public health. Governments and development agencies collaborate to promote behaviour change and create a mass movement for ‘Clean Hands Prevent Disease’. NGOs serving decentralised affordable safe water from their Water ATMs to the low- income communities stepped up their WASH education campaigns in the communities they served. The main focus has been on the method of hand washing and the moments of hand washing.
However, addressing this issue needs a multi-dimensional approach. But it is not just a question of infrastructure alone. There are factors like culture, education and socioeconomic status involved. For instance, only about 50 per cent of the rural population use water and soap for handwashing, while this figure is 80 per cent in urban India. While slightly over 11 per cent of villagers do not use neither soap nor water, only 3 per cent of their urban counterparts have the matching behaviour.
Similarly, handwashing with soap and water is followed by only 40 per cent of households headed by the uneducated, compared to 85 per cent of households headed by people with at least 12 years of schooling.
The writer is Vice-president — Program & Partnerships, Safe Water Network
