Sanitation and hygiene is a critical issue facing India today. With rapid population explosion India is second largest country by population and it has (732 million people) without access to toilet or lack access to improved sanitation facilities. As per the report by Water aid each year, 60,700 children under five years die from diarrheal diseases.

In an endeavor to generate awareness among the school children on the issues of sanitation and hygiene with focus on personal hygiene, Toxics Link joined hands with NTPC Faridabad to organize awareness programmes in school. The programme aimed to create awareness and promote sanitation and personal hygiene as mean and maintaining in day to day activities & programme focused on following points:-

• Washing of hands with soap and water before eating, feeding children and serving food as well as after defecation and disposing off children’s dissipate can reduce the incidents of diarrhoea & other diseases to nearly 40%.
• Clothes should be washed daily.
• Tooth should be brushed properly quality tooth brush and paste every day in the morning and before going to bed.
• To use foot wear in order to prevent diseases.
• Change toothbrush in every three months

The awareness programme addresses an important audience group i.e. the students (approx 80) from two government school of Faridabad. The student and youth group is seen as effective change makers and can also influence the family behaviors. Some of the highlights of programme were proper use of drinking water, hygienic practices in daily activities, keeping the surrounding neat and clean. We used different info-graphic materials and pictures to give them an understanding.

The school programme covered 2 schools in Faridabad and workshops were conducted to sensitize the children on Sanitation and personal hygiene, benefits and predicament of not maintaining personal hygiene.

The campaign has been successful in terms of initiating an immediate thought-process on the benefits of sanitation and maintaining personal hygiene. Toxics Link put light on important issues relating health, daily practices and also talked about ways to make Healthy Environment in the village. Some of the key points for emerged from the awareness drive were:

• To reduce water born diseases
• Sanitary practices for the school going students
• To aware those about the use of foot wear while using TBRs.
• Develop a practice of hand washing among school children.