Citation:

Annanya Sardar, Dr. Deepak Kumar Behera. "Wash Practices of School-Going Children in South Asia" International Research Journal of Economics and Management Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 255-262, 2024.

Abstract:

Over the past few years, it has been seen that WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) practices like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and hygiene have improved the scenario, but still, there are many places in South Asian countries where it has been seen that there is a lack of proper facilities of handwashing, sanitation & hygiene & no clean drinking water & therefore many people are faced different kinds of problems & it has hampered their health too. It can be seen that water demand is rising day by day because of the rapid population growth and irrigation needs in the agriculture, industrial, and energy sectors. However, overuse of groundwater, poor management, and contamination of fresh water has led us to various problems. Among these situations, the majority of the children have faced problems because of lack of fresh water, sanitation & hygiene & most of the students in schools are affected with diarrhoea and other diseases and more than thousand cases have been recorded annually. The situation of diarrhoea and respiratory infections is the main cause of the increase in the mortality rate in children. Also, growth stunting and malnutrition have been found out too among these children. The main reason found that the children did not follow handwashing behaviour & also there is the problem of clean water & sanitation, due to a lack of data available about school-going children in South Asian countries. In this paper, the secondary data has been taken into consideration. The paper aims to focus on what hinders students in schools from washing their hands, how it has affected their health, and the lack of facilities of clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and hygiene facilities that have been missing in the schools. The study will be based on South Asian progress in clean water and sanitation. Moreover, to ensure a sustainable and equitable distribution of clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene by the year 2030 as it is a part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Keywords:

Handwashing, Sanitation, Hygiene, Drinking Water, Open Defecation, Diarrhoea.