Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 1 : A charity group in Dimapur, the Rotary Club, has provided for a girl’s toilet and hand-wash stations at the government higher secondary school (GHSS) of Dimapur. The charity was part of ‘Rotary India Wash in Schools’ program. Said hygiene facilities were inaugurated on Thur. Nov. 1 by District Education Officer R Amongla Jamir.
The education officer has emphasised on valuing public property as one’s own. She has urged the school’s authority and the students to take care of the facilities that have been provided by the club as the government cannot provide such.
Jamir pointed out that government programs are not being carried out successfully and are not able to provide basic facilities to schools unless nongovernmental organisations such as the Rotary Club come forward to assist institutions that lack basic amenities.
The coordinator of the event, Chandu Agarwala, highlighted the charity’s program. She said it was a pan-India campaign initiated by Rotary in India in support of the national sanitation campaign Swachh Bharat: Swachh Vidyalya, which was launched by the Human Resource Development ministry.
The key features of the campaign as stated in the organisation’s website: ‘The campaign was to ensure that government schools in India have a set of functioning and well maintained water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. It aims to improve the curriculum and teaching methods while promoting hygiene practices and community ownership of water and sanitation facilities within schools.’
The technical components are said to include drinking water, hand wash, toilets and soap facilities in the school compound for use by children and teachers. The human development components are activities that promote conditions within the school and the practices of children that help to prevent water, hygiene and sanitation related diseases.
The organisation’s website also states, as presented by Agarawala: “Washing hands with soap at two critical times – after using the toilet and before eating food – reduces the incidence of diarrhoea by an average of 30 per cent; hand washing with soap can reduce the incidence of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) by more than 20 per cent; hand washing promotion in schools can play a role in reducing the number of days children miss school; hand washing with soap is one of the most cost-effective interventions to prevent diarrhoea-related deaths and disease; and by washing hands with soap children get the nutritional benefits intended, rather than ingesting bacteria, germs and viruses.’
The chairman of the project, RS Panesar said that the project was formulated in the year 2015 but started after three years, in 2018. He appealed to the school and its students to maintain said facilities. He encouraged them to maintain hygiene.
Also, Dr. Nitin Agarwala, president of Rotary Club at Dimapur, said that the aim of the club was to ‘improve infrastructure’ of govt. schools in the district. The organisation has conducted similar projects in more than ten schools, it was informed.
