In 2016, as part of Reckitt’s commitment to a cleaner and healthier India, the Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign decided to develop a Swachh or hygiene program for schoolchildren. The aim of the program was to educate children on the importance of cleanliness and teach healthy habits and practices and help achieve India’s dream of becoming Swasth and Swachh.
About the Dettol Hygiene Program
The program comprises 45 lessons through which Dettol Banega Swasth India hopes to inculcate hygienic habits. The program has been put together very simplistically in English, Hindi and Telegu, to expand its reach across India. It’s basically a step-by-step guide to keeping kids healthy and active. To facilitate understanding, it has been divided into five sections: personal hygiene, hygiene at home, hygiene at school, hygiene during illness and hygiene in the neighbourhood.
The first part of the module, Personal Hygiene, aims to instil certain habits in children that they can follow regularly and become healthier beings. In this setting, children learn basic hygiene practices such as how to wash their hands regularly with soap and water, how to bathe properly and keep diseases at bay, how to brush their teeth and keep away caries.
The second part of the program focuses on home hygiene and emphasizes the importance of keeping the home environment clean and healthy by following a basic hygiene routine. From washing hands before eating, to following a healthy toilet routine and ensuring the use of clean water, the program educates children on the healthy practices they should track around the house daily to ensure cleanliness, as it is the best defense against disease and pest infestation.
The third component focuses and educates children on how they can help make their school environment healthier.
The fourth and fifth components of the hygiene program focus on educating children about the importance of hygiene when sick and the importance of cleanliness in the neighborhood, which is imperative for a way of life. healthy.
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Reckitt’s commitment to A Swasth India and his achievements
Through the program, the Banega Swasth India campaign has pledged to triple its social impact by directly reaching nearly 47 million people by 2026 and 100% of primary schools in India. Regarding the achievements of the Dettol School Hygiene Program, here is how it is changing the lives of school children:
– The program has reached over 6.5 lakh schools and madrasas across India
– The Dettol School Hygiene Program reported a 57% improvement in handwashing knowledge and a 54% increase in handwashing practice through 2020. As a result, the program reduced diarrhea by 14.6% and a 39% drop in school absenteeism
– To spread the message about the importance of hygiene, comics focusing on 100 Ways Germs Spread were created involving popular characters like Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu from Diamond Comics
– The Dettol school hygiene program is also being used to support the reopening of schools across India
– The program has been reported to help increase the confidence of parents who feared sending their children back to school
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– The program has evolved over time, in the post COVID-19 scenario, it has involved technical lessons and guidelines, decals, posters and products like soaps, masks, infrared thermometer, etc. to ensure schools are ready to reopen after the pandemic
– As part of the Dettol School Hygiene Program, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning about hygiene was introduced by bringing hygiene science into the home through the “Hygiene Buddy kits”, to stimulate learning through neurolinguist programming (NLP). ). These kits have reached more than one lakh more schools in India. The kit contains 2 sets – “Soapy Dough” for making handmade soap that doubles as a safe hygienic substitute for Play-Doh. The second game is “Know How Germs Spread”, which is a simple game to teach children how germs are spread via unwashed hands and how these can be eliminated by following the hand washing steps.
– In addition, hygiene corners have also been set up in schools across the country. A hygiene corner is a designated place in each school where the school displays all materials related to the practice of hygiene promoted by Dettol Banega Swasth India. Materials include student workbooks, teacher’s manual, buckets, water cups, towels, posters, first aid kit, soap and more.
According to evaluation reports, the hygiene education program at Dettol School notes a 32% improvement in knowledge about hygiene and maintenance of toilets.
Ravi Bhatnagar, Director of External Affairs and Partnerships, Reckitt, says the Dettol school hygiene program in India has been “truly transformational”, he said:
I am immensely proud of our work in India, which has been truly transformative. Together with our partners, we are now able to provide 20 million school children with hygiene education, 8,000 mothers with support during the first 1,000 days of their children’s lives and millions more consumers. to have access to our products.
About the Author: Ravi Bhatnagar is Reckitt’s Director of External Affairs and Partnerships
NDTV – Dettol has been working for a clean and healthy India since 2014 through the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is led by campaign ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the environment, and of humans to each other, with a focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It emphasizes the need to care for and consider the health of everyone in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous peoples, various Indian tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically distant populations, gender and sexual minorities. As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) is reaffirmed as hand washing is one of the ways to prevent coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same topic while focusing on the importance of nutrition and health care for women and children, the fight against malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health and gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign realized the need to also take care of the health of the ecosystem. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which not only overexploits available resources, but also generates immense pollution due to the use and extraction of these resources. The imbalance has also resulted in an immense loss of biodiversity which has caused one of the greatest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity”. The campaign will continue to cover issues such as air pollution, waste management, plastic bans, manual salvage and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also pursue the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign believes that only a clean Swachh or India where toilets are used and Open Defecation (ODF) status is achieved under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like Diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or a healthy India.
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