Banega Swasth India Season 10: A Decade Of Dedication & Transformation To Bring A ‘Swasth Change'

Dettol School Hygiene Education Program: Hygiene is the beginning of a happier and healthier world - with this agenda in mind in 2014, under the aegis of its overarching movement, Dettol Banega Swasth India, Reckitt launched the transformative Dettol School Hygiene Education Program. The programme aims at teaching and embedding habits at an early stage so that the early behaviour and learnings can change and impact the lives of a generation growing up. Over the years, with the help of the initiative, the campaign has reached out to 24 million children across 840,000 schools and 500,000 Madrasas.  As a result, today there has been 70 per cent reduction in school absenteeism; 64 per cent improvement in children on knowledge of hand washing and 74 per cent increase in sanitation practices.

Reckitt's Hygiene Olympiad: Built on the fundamentals of good hygiene, the Hygiene Olympiad is a natural extension to the Dettol School Hygiene Curriculum. The aim of the programme is to motivate children to enhance their reasoning, analytical and problem-solving skills in the context of hygiene, making every day hygiene practices their second nature. In the second edition, the Olympiad will be engaging over 30 million students across 28 states and eight union territories in India.

Hygiene Play Parks: The relationship between hygiene and health was made crystal clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. The world realised the thumb rule of good health is handwashing with soap, experts have tagged this practice as a highly cost-effective public health measure. Keeping this in mind, in the year 2022, Dettol Banega Swasth India along with Apollo Foundation created a one-of-a-kind Hygiene Play Park in Aragonda, Andhra Pradesh to promote the importance of good hygiene practices. The vision of the park is to create a child-friendly, inclusive safe space for children to engage in simple and fun games with ‘hygiene' as its core theme.

Reach Each Child Campaign: Reach Each Child program prioritises adequate nutrition for children under the age of 5 through locally-led initiatives, with community nutrition workers being key suppliers of information and services. The programme was started in 2018, since then, it has helped over 1,50,000 under-5 children in three states of India - Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Under the initiative, 123 zero death villages have also been established and the campaign has ensured that not a single death in children under 5 takes place.

Dettol Diarrhoea Net Zero Initiative: Dettol Diarrhoea Net Zero, is one-of-a-kind program that has been working towards achieving Net Zero Diarrhoeal preventable deaths among under-5 children in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The initiative has helped saved lives of 100,000 under-5 children in 25 districts of the state based on the WHO 7-point plan. Moreover,  20,000 'Gulabi Didi Volunteers' have been trained in diarrhoea management and spreading awareness. Not just that, the programme also provides a lifesaving Dettol Diarrhoea Net Zero kits to the communities. These kits are thoughtfully designed to include essential items such as soap, sanitizers, zinc, ORS, and educational material, all neatly housed in a durable tin box.

Self Care Programme Targeting New Mothers: Reckitt's various projects have impacted people, especially women across the country with programmes that improve hygiene behaviour, child nutrition, maternal health and sexual education. According to Reckitt's Social Impact Investment Report 2021, with Reckitt's efforts in improving access to care and support before, during and after pregnancy, globally, 11 lakh new mothers had better access to care, as of 2021. It also states that over £4.1 million were invested across various initiatives that helped increase women across the globe, choose facility-based deliveries by 26 per cent.

Durex Birds and Bees Talk Initiative:  An innovative and pioneering initiative that focuses on inculcating growing up life skills for adolescents. The initiative has helped educate over 4 million adolescents in the North East part of India.

Hygiene Curriculum: Back in 2016, as a part of Reckitt's commitment towards a cleaner and healthier India, Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign decided to develop a Swachh or Hygiene Curriculum for school children. The objective of the curriculum was to educate children about the importance of cleanliness and teach healthy habits and practices and help realise India's dream of becoming Swasth and Swachh. The curriculum has 45 lessons through which Dettol Banega Swasth India hopes to inculcate hygienic habits. The curriculum has been collated in a very simplistic fashion in English, Hindi, and Telegu, to widen its reach across India. The programme has reached over 6.5 lakh schools and madrasas across India till now.

Folk Songs For A Healthy India: Folk Music has always been known to be one of the best tools to build awareness. With an aim to spread the message of hygiene among people across the country with music and connect them with hygiene and education in a fun way. Dettol has launched Rajasthani folk music album in collaboration with Rais Khan Project and Dettol X Hindu Tamil Thisai initiative.

Dettol India's Climate Resilient School: To create a cadre of environmentally conscious children, Dettol India has kick-started its initiative of building climate resilient schools in India. Dettol India's Climate Resilient School project aims to tackle the climate change crisis in India. The project first will be implemented in three phases, starting this year till 2025. It will cover all 13 districts of Uttarakhand. On World Environment Day, Dettol launched its first Climate Resilient School in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand with the key goal to equip children, young people, and educators with tools to foresee the upcoming risks and prepare for both short-term needs and long-term solutions.