Reckitt and WhiteHat Jr Join Hands to Inspire Young Minds to Contribute Digital Hygiene Solutions Under Dettol Banega Swasth India Campaign

Leading global consumer health and hygiene company Reckitt, formerly RB, under the Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign today announced a collaboration with leading technology-based education company WhiteHat Jr to launch a unique digital scholarship program. The WhiteHat Jr Swasth Bharat Tech Champs Program aims to inspire children in the age group of 6-18 years to reimagine health and hygiene solutions that impact all human touch-points from personal to domestic and from the community to the environment. 

At the helm, this scholarship program will drive young Indians to participate in a cause that is in dire need of attention, reinforcing the importance of sanitation and hygiene in our communities. The program, crafted to pique the interest of young minds, will include technology as a critical lever, entailing the creation of mobile applications to tackle hygiene-related issues in the country. An open-to-all contest vetted by E&Y will invite Indian students aged 6-18 years to reimagine solutions for age-old hygiene-related issues, which are still very much relevant amid COVID 19.

“The current generations’ association with technology is unimaginable, it has become their primary medium to connect, engage and express over critical issues,” said Mr. Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President, Reckitt South Asia. “With the unprecedented pandemic changing the way we live, eat, behave and socialize in our everyday lives, focus on health and hygiene has become paramount. Our collaboration with WhiteHat Jr is an effort not only to find immediate solutions to pressing needs of health and hygiene but also to make this a lifetime priority for them. We are excited to see the creative solutions they come up with to help spread the messages and make hygiene a habit.”

“Children are naturally creative and empathetic and since they aren’t predisposed to an existing concept or bound by the constraints of what’s doable, the solutions end up being genuinely innovative,” said CEO and Founder of WhiteHat Jr Karan Bajaj. “This initiative is a real-life manifestation of the mission of WhiteHat Jr to make children creators rather than being passive consumers of technology.”

Mr. Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs and Partnerships, Reckitt AMESA, said, “We, at Dettol Banega Swasth India, believe in education as the catalyst to social change and tool to empower children. We wanted to provide the socially conscious minds a platform to reimagine this cause and come up with solutions that will encourage more children to join the movement and make a difference. We are excited at the launch of this unique program and looking forward to improving the health quotient with these solutions.”

The top 50 shortlisted students will get an INR 50,000 scholarship from Reckitt. The six-month campaign will be executed in three phases: 

• Open to idea submissions (April 12-May 13, 2021) 
• Mentorship of top 200 submitted ideas by experts from WhiteHat Jr to help them fine-tune the idea and prepare the participants for the development of mobile applications
• Winner selection of top 50 students

Over the last six years, Dettol Banega Swasth India has played a critical role in driving true behaviour change towards better hygiene and sanitation practices for 13 million kids. The latest agenda for the campaign is to encourage the Indian population to adhere to self-care practices as a driver of change for a safer tomorrow. The pandemic, however, has enforced the paradigm shift in the entire approach towards healthcare. Health, hygiene & sanitation have come to the center stage of people’s lives and the campaign initiatives focus on propagating better health practices, proper sanitation and adequate nutrition while protecting the environment through sustainable methods.