What is Hygiene?
Hygiene not only refers to the cleansing of our body but also to the proper maintenance of all the other organs. Good personal hygiene can also help prevent diseases like COVID-19 (coronavirus), etc. It is believed that hygiene makes up fifty percent of health. Proper health and proper hygiene are indivisible, and there is an obvious association between them both.
However, health is widespread of physical, mental, and social well-being. On the other hand, hygiene refers to the practices that help in upholding health and preventing the spread of diseases regarding health.
What Comes Under Hygiene?
Hygiene includes:
- Oral Hygiene
- Nail Hygiene
- Body/Skin/Hair Hygiene
- Foot Hygiene
- Food Hygiene
- Clothing Hygiene
Proper Hygiene and the Sustainable Development Goals:
Sanitation along with hygiene is a universal human right. This human right “entitles everyone to have physical and affordable access to sanitation which is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable”, according to the United Nations Human Rights.
As a part of the sustainable development goals, the United Nations (UN) set clean water and sanitation facilities as goal number 6 out of the 17 sustainable development goals. The official wording of this goal is: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”
Sanitation and hygiene are also given high status, for they are related to various other goals. For this to be reached, everyone needs to take part, including governments, schools, civil societies, and every citizen wanting to make a change.
The Problem We Face:
Most of us take the issue of personal hygiene for granted. That is the reason this world still isn’t clean, despite the improved cities. Infections related to bad sanitation and unsafe water are about 10% of the global burdens of disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Basic handwashing with alcohol-based hand sanitizer or just with a hand wash for 20-30 seconds is a good hygiene practice. Spreading knowledge on how proper hygiene plays a crucial role in our well-being is also another way to stop these communicable diseases related to the hygiene issues from spreading.
Until now, it must have become clear that each person must act to have proper hygiene on this planet. Now, let us see what the government is contributing to it. One such way it is going so is through the Swachh Bharat Mission.
The Swachh Bharat Mission:
Launched by Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, this mission is a large-scale government initiative focused on providing sanitation and hygiene facilities to all Indian citizens. This would make a major effect on public health and in safeguarding the income of the poor people, also underwriting to the national economy. The main objective of this mission is to end the hygiene and cleanliness problems in India.
Proper hygiene practices are essential in maintaining both personal and public hygiene. Thus, we need to break this shell and create awareness among people about good hygiene.
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