An Ifop survey reveals the sacrifices that some French people make on their hygiene to cope with the economic context of inflation.
By IM with AFP
© Patrick Lefevre / MAXPPP / BELPRESS/MAXPPP
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SAccording to an Ifop poll for the association Dons solidaires, revealed on Tuesday March 21 by Release, a third of French people do without hygiene products because of the economic context. And this precariousness is getting worse. Hygienic precariousness, which « lowers self-esteem and leads to isolation », « continues to progress and is no longer the prerogative of the beneficiaries of associations » fight once morest poverty, was alarmed in a press release this association which collects unsold products from companies to give them to the charitable sector.
In detail, 7% of respondents indicate that they brush their teeth without toothpaste, 8% wash without soap or shower gel, and 17% of parents do not change their child’s diapers as frequently as they would like. During the previous barometer on this subject, in 2021, these proportions were approximately half as much. « How can you feel worthy when you lack such essential products? » wondered Dominique Besançon, the general delegate of Dons solidaires, who wishes « warn regarding this precariousness still too little considered ».
« Sometimes I wash the children with water alone »
Logically, the figures are even more alarming when we specifically question poor people, beneficiaries of associations in the Solidarity Donations network: 73% say they deprive themselves of hygiene products in general, 34% shampoo and 31% menstrual protection . « Sometimes I wash the children with water alone, or tell them to just do a quick wash », testifies a mother of two children, quoted in the press release. Another indicates using toilet paper for period protection: « I deprive myself to leave more protection to my daughters »she explains.
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Ifop survey for Dons solidaires, carried out on two panels: a representative sample of 1,501 respondents, plus 300 parents of children aged three or under, questioned by self-administered online questionnaire in November 2022; and a sample of 1,162 beneficiaries of associations in precarious and socially excluded situations, interviewed in January and February 2023 at the premises of partner associations.
