New Delhi, May 14 (Inditop) Sulabh International, an NGO credited with improving sanitation across India, has been invited by the Bhutan government to conduct classes and a symposium on sanitation, health and hygiene for school children.
Experts from Sulabh will share their expertise with boys and girls from 20 schools in Bhutan via the Indo-Bhutan School Sanitation Hygiene Symposium to be held at Thimphu and Phuntsholing. Eleven school children from India will also visit Bhutan as part of an exchange programme during a five-day workshop.
“The main objective of this programme is to mobilise children to stimulate changes in traditional behaviour in the community, specifically about open defecation, through child to child and child to parent pressure,” Sulabh’s founder Bindeshwar Pathak said.
Child health groups in schools and communities will be established to increase awareness on hygiene issues among children.
According to Pathak, the programme aims to address lack of knowledge of basic practices like washing hands with soap at critical times, proper disposal of domestic waste, practice of keeping food and water covered and manufacturing low cost sanitary napkins at school.
In association with Unicef, Sulabh International and Bhutan’s ministry of education will organise the inaugural workshop May 19 at the Millennium Youth Centre, Thimphu. A special exhibition of environment-friendly models on sanitation will also be displayed at the venue by the Indian and Bhutanese schoolchildren.
rounak