Hygiene and cleanliness form an integral component of our everyday lives and are crucial elements of being proper adults in the society. They have a strong impact not only on individuals’ health but also on their self-esteem at personal and professional levels. In light of this, it is imperative that adults take responsibility towards instilling good habits of hygiene and cleanliness amongst children while they are still young and impressionable. Doing so will provide them with a good foundation to become capable adults with strong minds and strong bodies. Discipline and proper instruction can create a lifelong impact on one’s habits.
With most families having working parents nowadays, much of the responsibility of hygiene training rests on the shoulders of schools – the one place where students spend 1/3rd of their day. Moreover, it is these educational establishments that play a vital role in the development and upbringing of children. Values must be integrated into the curriculum and teachers must do their part in imparting useful practices regarding personal, water, food, domestic and public hygiene. From signboards in the school washrooms, to consistent awareness programs, the importance of hygiene must be inculcated right from nursery. In several developing countries today, the youth is losing out on education due to the lack of hygienic toilets and moreover the lack of awareness of their importance among the faculty and staff. Hence, sometimes – without overruling their education – it becomes imperative to organize awareness programs to educate or even reiterate the importance of hygiene.
Absence of awareness towards cleanliness can cause social disharmony. Litter on roads, polluted water bodies and poor sanitation make excellent breeding grounds for pests and we all know that rats, mice, cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes spread germs. The recent dengue epidemic of Bangladesh acts as precedent for the impacts of negligence towards cleanliness. Bangladesh has recently records nearly 60,000 patients hospitalized for dengue so far in 2019. Clean water puddles at homes, rooftops, offices, in playgrounds and the absence of the habit of cleanliness amongst community members across communities have caused such epidemic in the first place. We pride ourselves for keeping our houses clean, yet we do not hesitate to dirty our surroundings with domestic refuse. It is mandatory to follow certain rules, like keeping our surroundings clean, avoiding littering in public places and refraining from spitting on the road.
As a child grows up the value of hygiene is to be instilled upon them even in the smallest actions like washing hands before every meal, brushing teeth twice a day. That in the future is translated into an individual being dedicated towards cultivating the same habits and promoting its significance to the next generation. Cleanliness is crucial in classrooms and playgrounds as they can be breeding grounds for the spread of germs. By safeguarding children, we can protect others in the community and create a suitable environment for physical and academic growth among children. Little habits such as washing hands, regularly brushing teeth, covering the mouth when sneezing, refraining from littering or spitting on the road and maintaining clean surroundings are traditionally developed at home. Adults must help children establish good hygiene habits by promoting a culture of cleanliness at home and in school. This truly demonstrates the attitude of individuals towards their surroundings. They show a lack of cleanliness and lack of interest or awareness in keeping their surroundings clean. There is a dire need to educate people about the importance of cleanliness.
This will help safeguard the youth from preventable sicknesses such as fever, cold, flu, chicken pox and jaundice. As many parents live active professional lives, they are the most exposed to potential diseases due to their close proximity to other people in their working environment and various daily activities such as utilizing public transportation and encountering co-workers and other individuals suffering from various illnesses. Adults must embody the values they wish to espouse. Catching germs as a result of these points of contact can not only diminish an individual’s productivity and put their health at risk, but may also spread sickness to the children at home. This invaluable investment in the next generation will largely determine the kind of people that will emerge in the coming years and ensure that they will maintain good habits they can pass on to following generations.
Cleanliness should be an attitude. Through a clear, systematic and consistent promotion of the cleanliness concept through the various media and by roping in celebrities to appeal to the citizens of the country, ‘Dettol Harpic Porichchonno Bangladesh’ has become a national movement for cleanliness, making citizens responsible participants to build such attitude. Furthermore integrating future generations, the project is comprised of a series of community sensitizations and simultaneous clean up campaigns being undertaken and spearheaded by youths with the strategic principle to help address and manage social issues. Such movement is encouraging young people to become active agents of the community by ensuring the cleanliness of their communities, engraining a sense of ownership of the environment.
Additionally, Bangladesh Scouts and ‘Porichchonno Bangladesh’ has been carrying out aggressive campaign titled, ‘Porichchonnotar Ongikar’, aimed at the youth and the general masses to pledge oaths of cleanliness and individual responsibility towards keeping he community clean; and in a broader aspect the whole country.