New Delhi: The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, on Friday (July 5) joined hands with the Health Ministry’s National STOP Diarrhoea Campaign 2024. The Ministry of Jal Shakti said that a joint “effort will contribute to the National STOP Diarrhoea Campaign’s goal of reducing childhood mortality due to Diarrhoea and improving overall public health in rural India.
It will also “advocate sustaining and achieving the Open Defecation Free Plus Model status in all villages in India towards a Sampoorna Swasth & Swachh Bharat”.
C.R. Paatil, Union Minister of Jal Shakti said,
The synergy between the rural sanitation mission and the National STOP Diarrhoea Campaign underscores our unwavering dedication to public health.
He added that the concerted efforts will help “reduce childhood mortality and also foster a culture of health and hygiene across rural India”.
Launched on June 24, the two-month-long National STOP Diarrhoea campaign aims to attain zero deaths in kids under 5 due to diarrhoea — the third leading cause of childhood mortality in India.
Its key focus areas include strengthening health infrastructure by ensuring the maintenance of health facilities and the availability of essential medical supplies (ORS, Zinc), especially in rural areas.
It also aims to improve access to clean water and sanitation; enhance nutritional programmes to tackle malnutrition; and promote hygiene education.
Complementing this initiative, DDWS also launched an awareness campaign on ‘Safe Water and Sanitation’ in rural areas from July 1 to August 31. The campaign ‘Swachh Gaon, Shudh Jal- Behtar Kal’ is designed to raise awareness and promote the use of safe water and sanitation practices at the village and panchayat levels.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
