Catching them young: an assessment of hygiene knowledge in government school children in Delhi

Children are recognised as change agents in hygiene promotion. Though numerous efforts are being made to sensitise them on the importance of hygiene it is necessary to gauge their current understanding. For the 2015 Global Handwashing Day, WaterAid India and Society for All Round Development (SARD) conducted quizzes to reinforce the importance of hygiene within schools and recognise children as school health ambassadors and nurture them as change agents between their schools and communities. The quiz helped us analyse the current understanding of the school children on different aspects of hygiene and design targeted interventions needed to further their understanding on the subject. Based on the analysis of the responses of the children to the quiz questionnaire we found that the children from different age groups, classes and gender had different levels of understanding on various aspects of hygiene.