The Telegraph

Just over a third of Indians wash their hands with soap or detergent before meals while more than a fourth don’t do it even after defecation, says an official survey that has exposed India’s vulnerability to infections.

The July-December 2018 sample survey has gained additional significance amid the current Covid-19 pandemic, during which people are being advised to keep washing their hands with soap and water through the day.

Carried out as part of the 76th round of the National Sample Survey conducted by the National Statistical Office, the exercise covered 1.06 lakh households in 5,378 villages and 3,614 urban blocks.

Among the questions households were asked during the “drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition” survey was whether they washed their hands before meals and after defecation.

Households were asked to choose from four possible answers: that its members washed their hands with water and soap or detergent, that they did so with water and ash or mud or sand, that they used only water, and that they did not wash their hands at all. (See chart)

According to the findings, released last November, hygiene practices are comparatively poor in the rural areas, where only 25.3 per cent respondents said they washed their hands with soap or detergent before meals compared with 56 per cent among their urban counterparts.

As for cleaning one’s hands with soap or detergent after defecation, only 66.8 per cent did so in rural India compared with 88.3 per cent in the urban areas.

In Bengal, 28.3 per cent washed their hands with soap or detergent before meals (below national average) and 78 per cent after defecation (just above national average).

Sikkim topped the charts, with 87 per cent cleaning their hands with soap or detergent before meals and 99.5 per cent doing so after defecation.

At the bottom of the list, 2.9 per cent households in Delhi admitted to not washing their hands at all before meals, and 2.7 per cent in Meghalaya said they did not do so after defecation.

While washing one’s hands before meals and after defecation are key to avoiding bacterial infections, the battle against viral diseases like Covid-19 demands thorough hand-scrubbing round the clock.

Dr Sunil Dargar, a senior pathologist, attributed the low percentage of households cleaning their hands with soap before meals to varying cultural practices in the country.

“Cultural practices vary among regions and communities. But cleaning one’s hands with soap before and after meals is absolutely necessary to check bacterial infection, if not virus infection,” Dargar said.