Awareness about cleanliness & hygiene spread through Swachh Bharat Abhiyan significantly helped mitigate impact of Covid-19: Ashwini Kumar Choubey
New Delhi, 05th May 2020: Wide-scale awareness spread among the masses about importance of cleanliness and hygiene through Swachh Bharat Mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 helped in mitigating the impact of Covid-19 in India to a large extent, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey said in an ASSOCHAM webinar organised today on the occasion of World Hand Hygiene Day.
“While the entire world is grappling with the pandemic of Covid-19, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that awareness about hygiene and cleanliness through PM’s flagship nationwide campaign of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan helped India contain the spread of coronavirus much better than various countries,” said Mr Choubey while interacting with industry leaders and delegates in a webinar on ‘World Hand Hygiene Day,’ organised by ASSOCHAM jointly with Narayana Health.
“On Hand Hygiene Day, marked by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is imperative to spread among frontline workers, children and everyone else the importance of integrating healthy habit and adopting hygienic practice of hand washing with soap to control the spread of various diseases and infections,” he said.
He also said that viral diseases and infections are a grave challenge to entire world. “The pandemic of Covid-19 is a curse for global community including India and thus we need to become self-reliant in terms of dealing with this disease and defeat the same.”
The Minister stated that there is a direct correlation between hygiene and good health. “Good personal hygiene is one of the most effective ways we have to protect ourselves and others from illness, especially hand washing as most infections are spread through dirty, unwashed hands. The more cleanliness and hygiene we maintain, healthier we become.”
He also lauded the government’s initiatives taken to boost the morale of frontline Covid-19 warriors including the healthcare officials, sanitation workers, security forces and others.
Sharing his views, ASSOCHAM’s senior vice-president, Mr Vineet Agarwal said, “As we battle Covid, hand hygiene will continue to be perhaps the most effective saviour and we believe it is very important today to reaffirm and highlight its importance.”
Mr Deepak Sood, secretary general, ASSOCHAM said that cleanliness and sanitation, particularly, this simple but important practice of hand hygiene is one of the most critical and effective tool to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.