The advent of Coronavirus has given the world a reality check about the improper standards of hygiene we all had been practising till now. Despite getting health education on personal hygiene since our childhood we as adults failed in practising right standards of hygiene which has resulted in the spread of Coronavirus all over the world like wildfire. But, as after every storm there is a silver lining, Coronavirus has most certainly brought a drastic hygiene behaviour change amongst people as finally everyone is conscious about the importance of hygiene and sanitation, specifically the importance of handwashing. This behavioural change has been identified as a heightened consciousness of hygiene.
What is the heightened consciousness of hygiene?
Until the Coronavirus had hit us, the importance of hygiene was limited and many a time ignored as people were not accustomed to washing their hands as regularly as we are doing now. But the Coronavirus has been a game-changer in the habit of hygiene of people, especially hand hygiene.
Today people are cautious that before they touch any surface they sanitize the surface or clean/sanitize their hands after touching the surface or (even better) they prefer doing both. They have realised the health benefits of good hygiene which is why they know that now even the slightest ignorance of hygiene can cause fatal consequences and therefore, today everyone is practising the highest standards of hygiene by cleaning their hands regularly and thoroughly as well as sanitizing everything around them in their surrounding so that there is no possibility of being exposed to the invisible enemies.
This consciousness of people for their hygiene is called a heightened consciousness of hygiene that has made people develop strict hygienic practices so that they and their dear ones are always in robustly safe and clean surroundings.
WILL THIS HEIGHTENED CONSCIOUSNESS OF HYGIENE CONTINUE POST CORONAVIRUS?
It is an undeniable fact that the reason we humans have developed this heightened consciousness for hygiene is that we are fearful of the coronavirus. But what happens when the coronavirus ends or the fear of coronavirus ends, will people still follow such strict hygienic practices? This is an important question for all of us as it shall decide the course of our future in the new normal.
We must inculcate the consciousness of heightened hygiene as part of our normal routine rather than as a correlated action to the fear of coronavirus; fear shall only make us stick to the habit of following hygiene practices for a temporary time thereby, we need to adopt and inculcate the heightened hygiene practices as a habit that is as normal and important as eating food to survive.
So how can the practices of heightened consciousness of hygiene continue to post the coronavirus?
In the new normal, we need to make sure that our future generations never have to face anything like the gruesome pandemic of coronavirus. Therefore, we need to establish mechanisms that shall promote and inculcate hygiene practices thoroughly.
Following are some ways that can make heightened consciousness of hand hygiene a regular practice in us and our children-
- EXTENSIVE HAND HYGIENE PROMOTION
It has been noticed that during the Coronavirus, the massive awareness through commercials and ad promotions about hand hygiene has been quite beneficial as it has intrigued people to regularly and thoroughly keep the hands clean. These promotions have also acted as a reminder for people to clean their hands in short intervals.
- MAKE PEOPLE AWARE ABOUT THE HAND HYGIENE BENEFITS
Humans need to be repeatedly told about the practice until they become habitual to it. If one remembers the constant reminders and awareness about the polio campaign you would understand this. During the polio campaign, government agencies had left no stone unturned in making people aware of how important were the 2 drops of polio medicine for their children. Therefore, similar to the polio campaign, the governmental agencies would again have to extensively promote hand hygiene benefits so that it gets inculcated in the memory of people.
- HAND HYGIENE ACCESS IN PUBLIC SPACES
When the Coronavirus hit the world, everyone realised the importance of having thorough hand sanitization and cleaning mechanisms. Even the governments of the world have been actively establishing sanitizing dispensers, soaps, and water arrangements in public places that will enable people to have convenient access for cleaning and sanitizing their hands. It is important that while the public is being trained through promotions about hand hygiene at the same time they are given proper and easy access to mechanisms that shall help them to clean and sanitize their hands regularly and thoroughly.
According to the WHO it has been recommended that every government needs to ensure that in all public places, transport hubs, markets, places of worship, healthcare facilities and educational institutions there should be hand cleaning and washing facilities that will remind as well as enforce people to clean their hands often.
Thus, keeping in mind the recommendations of WHO and to effectively implement hand cleaning practices amongst people in every place possible, HiGenie has designed varieties of Touchless Soap and Sanitizer dispensers that have been specifically formulated with features such as anti-theft lock system and Infrared technology that makes these dispensers perfectly suitable to be wall-mounted or fitted in any and every corner of public places. The Touchless feature of these dispensers is integral to the current times because it helps in reducing the chances of mass contamination by touching the common point.
HiGenie a truly made in India brand is determined to develop sanitising solutions that shall cater to the heightened consciousness of hygiene ensuring that the world is ready to enter the new normal with robust hygiene practices that shall keep our future generation safe.