Participating in a television program, Banega Swasth India Season 9, which is a joint initiative by Dettol India and NDTV with a commitment towards making India healthier and cleaner, Nagaland Minister of Higher Education, Imna Along once again, burst the myth of the North-East community not giving enough attention to hand hygiene.
Responding to a question raised by actor Amitabh Bachan, who is also the ambassador of the campaign, Imna Along dismissed the ‘misinformation’ on NE Indians. Bachan said, “There is a misnomer about NE states that they are not giving too much attention to hygiene. The process of hygiene is almost absent there,” and then asked Imna Along, “As the education minister, what are the steps you are taking so that hygiene can be inculcated among the children?” to which the Nagaland minister quickly replied that it was a “little bit of wrong information.”
The Minister then went on to cite how the North-East had the least number of people affected by Covid and how some of the villages in the Northeast were among the cleanest in the whole country.
He also concurred that Covid had made people more aware about the disaster a non-hygienic lifestyle can bring and that hygiene has been given a more holistic approach to students as well as people in general.
Following this, Prannoy Roy, one of co-founders of NDTV asked Imna Along about the “things that the rest of the country can learn from NE,” to which the Minister stressed on the importance of “communitization of any health issues.”
“In our state, in the village, we take it among the community to keep such cleanliness or hygiene. We narrate a narrative, not just impose,” he said.
He also mentioned that sometimes, “a single person’s endeavor is difficult to take up” and hence, community approach is the key.
He then referred to the success story of Noklak’s menstrual hygiene initiative led by IPS officer Pritpal Kaur together with the community’s womenfolk and stressed on the idea that, when the community takes collective responsibility, the end result will be a success story.