AF Hasan Arif, advisor to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, said that the campaign should be emphasized to increase the practice of hand washing. Family awareness should be increased for a child to develop the habit of keeping clean from childhood. Field level programs of cleanliness should be spread in schools and colleges as well as madrasahs.

He said these things at a discussion meeting organized on the occasion of World Handwashing Day on Tuesday. The meeting was organized by the Department of Public Health Engineering.

The advisor said, 'Cleanliness is part of faith' - this sentence is not only written on the wall, but programs should be taken to keep people from every level of society clean.

The discussion meeting held in front of the theme 'Why Are Kiln Hands Important' was presided over by Secretary of Local Government Department (Ru. Da) Md. Nazrul Islam. UNICEF Bangladesh Representative Deepika Sharma and WHO Deputy Representative Rajesh Narwal were present as guests of honour.

In order to involve the public at all levels of the country in achieving the sustainable development goals and to increase awareness, like every year, this year too, the initiative of the local government department has celebrated 'World Handwashing Day 2024' on October 15 in Bangladesh along with various countries around the world. At the beginning of the program, a minute's silence was observed to pay respect to all the martyrs who died in the anti-discrimination student movement in the month of July-August.

The speakers said that the current government is committed to ensuring safe water, sanitation and waste management facilities for all by 2030 and achieving the target within the stipulated time as per SDG targets. For the social and economic prosperity of the country, the importance of sustainable hygiene in protecting the good health of the people is immense.

The main thrust of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 is to ensure safe sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030. According to the targets of SDG, various development projects have been taken under the leadership of local government departments which are under implementation. A social movement has already developed with the participation of people from all walks of life, including non-governmental organizations, for the development of sanitation and health protection. As a result, awareness about hand washing has increased greatly at the village, union and upazila levels. Bangladesh's success in achieving the MDG development targets on sanitation has been globally acclaimed which will serve as an impetus to achieve the SDG targets by 2030.