Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the performance of Madhya Pradesh in setting global record of handwashing by schoolchildren on October 15 last in a drive to make children aware of sanitation and personal hygiene. Modi was addressing the inaugural function of Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai on Saturday.
He referred to this record of Madhya Pradesh while stressing the importance of the role of clean water and sanitation in the prevention of diseases.
It is noteworthy that schoolchildren of Madhya Pradesh created a new world record on Global Handwashing Day, which was held earlier jointly by Argentina, Peru and Mexico. In these three countries, 7,40,870 people had created this record by simultaneous handwashing at different places on October 14, 2011. Madhya Pradesh is the only State, which has surpassed the joint record of the three countries. As many as 13,46,045 students of the State's 14,429 schools took part in the handwashing campaign.
On October 15, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the State-level handwashing programme at a Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Bhopal in the morning. Handwashing with soap was successfully done in all Government primary and middle schools and 80,000 anganwadis in the State.