Often hygiene is confused with cleaning, and considered as a part of janitorial or cleaning contractor’s services. Washroom hygiene is much related to personal hygiene.
Consider the following:
• A toilet user opens the door knob with unwashed hands. The next user touches the same contaminated door knob.
• A user touching the soap dispenser to wash hands after using the toilet
• A sick person using the commode and the next user sitting on the same contaminated toilet seat
• A student peeing carelessly and leaving urine droplets on the toilet seat and the next user sitting on the contaminated seat
• A user washing hands and wiping it with his used handkerchief and thereafter touching every surface after leaving the washroom…
A cleaning contractor or service provider can clean the washbasin, the washroom floor, tiles/walls, the commode… but not provide hygiene. He can even refill the soap dispenser, restock tissues, change the toilet seat liner, and fill the emptied sanitizer dispenser… but cannot ensure hygiene.
This is where the role of specialized Washroom Hygiene products and services play an important role. With proper washroom hygiene products and personal hygiene practices a toilet user can be protected from contamination.
In India, lack of awareness about washroom hygiene has been the main cause for poor demand. IT sector is one of the main consumers of washroom hygiene products and services because of the awareness levels. Most of these companies are MNCs and come with set standards in terms of hygiene practices. Besides IT, the other consumers of WH products and services are the core sectors like education institutions, hospitals or for that matter any commercial establishment involving people where contamination is at a higher level.
The washroom hygiene service segment also does away with the capital investment of installing hygiene products. The supplier installs the products and charges for the consumables and maintenance.
There are hardly many players in this industry providing washroom hygiene products and services – about 10 to 15 companies with only three to four in the organized sector. With such few players and markets untapped, all put together the washroom hygiene and service segment in India hardly does `100 crore business. This does not include the tissue paper market as there is no consolidated market analysis on the amount of paper consumed for washroom alone.
As told by Prashant Sule,
MD-Cannon Hygiene India
