Kajol Devgn, actor and Lifebuoy’s ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ ambassador will highlight the importance of handwashing with soap in reducing child and new-born mortality at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). She will appeal to policymakers for a hygiene indicator to be included in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Together with fellow handwashing ambassador, Myanmar singer Chit Thu Wai, she will join a series of UN events in New York during UNGA week.

The UNGA week brings together world leaders, key opinion formers and policy makers to discuss global issues. This year is particularly important as it marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the launch of the SDGs – the goals that will set the development agenda for the next 15 years, and Lifebuoy believes it is vital that hygiene is included in this. Kajol will be part of several high-profile UN events; she will attend the Global Citizen Festival, a concert in Central Park to galvanize action from governments to deliver on the SDGs. She will also attend a panel with Unilever CEO Paul Polman, who together with advocacy partners will discuss the importance of a hygiene indicator to be included in the SDGs and highlight the role of business and partnerships in achieving the SDGs.

On her way to UNGA Kajol said, “I am so proud to be associated with ‘Help a Child Reach 5’, an initiative, which is so close to my heart. I would like to take the opportunity to engage with various policymakers, international influencers and UN dignitaries and urge them to join me in this lifesaving initiative of advocating a simple habit of handwashing with soap, especially among mothers with children in the neonatal period, where more than 40% of child deaths take place. I am also calling on policymakers to include a hygiene indicator in the SDGs so that governments will keep this lifesaving habit on their development agendas and help save more lives”

Handwashing with soap is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce preventable diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia – the main causes of child mortality. Over 40% of under-5 deaths globally occur in the newborn period[i] (the first 28 days of life). It is critical to measure handwashing behaviour change and provide place for handwashing in schools, health centres and households.

Since 2010, Lifebuoy has changed the handwashing behaviour of 257 million people across 24 countries. During these UN events, Lifebuoy will be urging the policy makers to include a hygiene indicator in the SDGs, so that hygiene will be kept on government and development agenda in order to reduce child mortality.