Health authorities around the world, including the World Health Organisation, are struggling to instruct people how to wash their hands properly and keep the COVID-19 virus away.
Policing people to do it is not ideal either.
However, police in the south Indian state of Kerala came up with a creative idea to show them – but without policing – how to.
The Kerala Police Media Centre released a hand washing dance video on their social media pages last week. Six police officers from the force are seen in the video, moving to the tune of a super-hit song in the local Malayalam language.
“It was a quick thought,” V.P Pramod Kumar, Deputy Director of the State Police Media Centre, told SBS Malayalam over the phone.
“We have been actively campaigning to encourage good hygiene practices and looking for ways to do it differently. So when this idea of dancing came up, we did it immediately with the available resources.”
The dance was not filmed professionally, instead, it was shot on two mobile cameras in a small room.
Through the dance moves the police officers are showing each step of good hand washing procedure as instructed by the World Health Organisation. Subtitles in Malayalam language were also used to explain each step.
“We didn’t have any extra support, but one of my team members filmed and edited it in his office computer. We never expected it to be such a massive hit,” says Pramod Kumar.
Source: Facebook: Kerala Police
The video has been shared more than 39,000 times with many international media outlets playing it on screen.
The video was tweeted by the state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers before the U.S. Embassy in India picked it up and posted on their official Facebook page.
“We received phone calls from all over the world, congratulating us and asking about it. We are happy that the message was conveyed well.”
However, what about the police officers on the dancing floor standing too close, not following the social distancing protocols?
Pramod Kumar explained that they were aware of it, but since they didn’t have the infrastructure and the message was of a larger nature, they went ahead with the filming.
Hostel seen closed until March 31 due to the spread of the coronavirus in Kerala. Source: AAP
The police force in Kerala has been active in the “break the chain” campaign introduced by the state government, aiming at social distancing and breaking the chain of virus spread.
Online trolls were one of the most important tools used by the police in this campaign.
Kerala health authorities have already received many accolades for the systematic campaign against the spread of coronavirus, by imposing strict isolation protocols and tracking and publishing the movement of any suspected cases.
Following the example of Kerala police, many other state police departments have subsequently produced such social videos encouraging hand washing and other hygiene practices.
