Swachhta Curriculum: Personal Hygiene

The Dettol-NDTV Banega Swachh India campaign has compiled a 45-lesson hygiene curriculum and teacher-training module that will be distributed in 10,000 schools across the country with the aim of spreading awareness on the importance of cleanliness. The curriculum hopes to inculcate hygienic habits in our schoolchildren who can help realise our dream of Swachh India.

The curriculum has been collated in a very simplistic fashion in English, Hindi, and Telegu, to widen its reach across India. It is a step-by-step guide for children to keep themselves healthy and active. For easy comprehension, it has been divided into five strands – Personal Hygiene, Hygiene at Home, Hygiene at School, Hygiene During Illness, and Hygiene in Neighbourhood. ((Download the Swachhta Curriculum))

The first strand of the module, Personal Hygiene, looks at instilling certain habits in children that they can follow regularly and mould themselves into healthier beings.

How to Bathe
It is important that children learn the importance of taking a bath regularly in the early stages of their lives. Not only does it help keep skin infections and diseases away, it also fights body odour because of which children often get bullied in school.

How to Wash Hands
This lesson underlines why it is imperative that children wash their hands with soap every time before they eat, and after using the toilet. It aims to make the children aware that if they don’t kill the germs on their hands they get from playing with their pet animals, or making mud-houses, the germs will go inside their bodies and make them sick.

How to Brush
No child wants to be kept away from chocolates because of cavities. And for that to not happen, it’s important that they be taught the importance of brushing correctly.

((Organise Swachhta Ki Pathshala in Your School))